


Gently's Moving Castle

by staarryy



Category: Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency (TV 2016)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Howl's Moving Castle Fusion, M/M, evne if you haven't seen the movie/read the book its alright im literally describing everything, farah as markl bc shes a witch here, friedkin is the witch of the waste and ken is the king, i changed things in the original movie to fit these characters bare with me, i love this movie so much and was dying to make an au about it and so BAM dghda got it, mona is here too, priest is the royal advisor/wizard asshole, tina is the scarecrow get rekt, todd as sofie and dirk as howl obv, todd is cursed and dirk is ridiculous and they Fall In Love alright, todd is v unhappy and im FORCING him to resolve all of his internal problems
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-05
Updated: 2020-05-18
Packaged: 2021-02-25 07:54:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 9
Words: 53,121
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22132666
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/staarryy/pseuds/staarryy
Summary: After their father's death almost five years ago, Todd took over his hat shop despite how unfulfilled he felt ever since that day. For the very least Amanda could achieve her dream of opening her own pub, and he was there to support her by her side, knowing deep inside that as long as he could take care of her he could ignore how he had to take care of himself.He wasn't miserable, even if he felt like all he did was drag his legs from one place to another, passing through time in a dazed and angry state.And, of course, it was him that was thrown into the wizards' and witches' loop of personal quarrels as war approached, getting cursed in the process and forced to find some unheard-of wizard deep in the Wastes when no other than the horrible Gently was roaming the land again.
Relationships: Farah Black/Tina Tevetino, Todd Brotzman/Dirk Gently, though minor
Comments: 34
Kudos: 51





	1. In Which Todd Talks to Hats

It was a peaceful, most normal day. The train whirred as it passed in the crowded street, it’s engine humming beneath Todd’s window. He sat by his table working on the hat in his hands, his desk overflowing with unfinished projects. The smoke from the old train fogged the view he had on the street, but his head was down to his work and he missed it being so.

He worked in the workshop of his shop, his separate room warmly coloured but empty of all furniture besides his desk, chair, hats and the large window. His clothes, plain and dark grey, were pale in contrast to the vibrant hats around him. From his dark blue trousers to his pale grey dress-shirt and darker grey waistcoat. 

His coworker stepped inside, laying his brown hand against the room’s doorpost. “I’ve closed the shop, Brotzman. You should get home, too.”

Todd was snapped out of his thoughts at that and barely looked up as he nodded in acknowledgment at being spoken to. “I’ll just finish this, and I’ll be off.” He flashed a quick smile, half apologetic. “Have a nice weekend.”

His colleague put on his coat. “Alright, then, I’m gone.” He turned from Todd’s doorstep back to where the other workers were doing their own jobs, calling out at them. “I’m going!” 

The others joined him and the group got ready to scatter off. Even though they worked _for_ him, Todd couldn’t feel more detached from them. Distantly, he half-heard their conversation at the door.

“Look, it’s Gently’s castle,” one of the women said. 

It brought the others’ attention to the window on the opposite side of the room from the door. “What? Gently? Where?”

“Look how close it is!” The first one said. “Oh, god.”

“I wonder if Gently is in town,” one of the men said, a mixture of hopefulness and curiosity. 

Todd looked up from his work to check out of his window, only to find it still fogged as it was for the past minutes. He could barely make out a movement in the fields behind the railway, catching only a glimpse of sun hitting metal.

“It took off,” someone said.

In response, a huff was made. “No, it’s just hiding from all the soldiers.”

“Say, you guys remember Martha who always requested those dreadful purple hats? They say Gently tore her heart out.”

“He’s a real fucker, I’m telling you,” someone commented helpfully. “Don’t worry, though, Liz! He’s not gonna want yours.”

Todd couldn’t help but snicker quietly to himself as his workers left chattering together. The workshop door closed behind them and Todd was left alone with the dim sound of the street and the loud sound of his thoughts. After finally finishing the hat he put it down, dusting off his pants and standing up to stretch his back. 

He took his black coat from the hanger by the door, and before leaving the shop came to a halting stop in front of the mirror, frowning at himself.

He tried to tidy his hair, crease the lines in his clothes which needed ironing, grumpily looking at the lines forming on his forehead from furrowing his brows uncontrollably. For someone nearly as uncaring for his looks at Todd was, he still couldn’t believe the bits of vanity still left in him. Unbelievable.

Sighing, he gave up and left the place, locking the door to the building as he left from the front exit. He made his way downtown and got on a bus, having to stand the whole drive as there were no untaken seats. Throughout the trip, he watched the military march he went by, flags fluttering in every corner of his eyes.

Deciding not to get into the horrible traffic in the middle of town caused by the parade he got off two stops before his own and began his walk through the alleyways to Amanda’s workplace. He was already halfway there when the turn he took was discovered to not be, in fact, as uninhabited as he wished it to be.

As he came closer to the pair of soldiers smoking at one side of the alleyway, he kept his hands in his coat pocket and gaze ahead as to make minimum contact with the two, in vain.

“Hey there, blue eyes, lost your way?”

Todd heaved a groan, closing his eyes before sparing the other man a glance, using every bit of his will to stay calm and not lash out. He really  _ wasn’t _ in the mood. Ever. “No, I’m fine.”

Another soldier stood in Todd’s way, forcing him to stay put. Todd couldn’t help the annoyed look he shot at him, all tan skin and tousled black curls and eyes so lazy Todd had a nagging feeling nothing even remotely fine could turn out with these soldiers. “I’m busy.”

The tan soldier in his way paid no attention to his words, instead leaned in a little closer, to which Todd took a defiant step back with an irritated frown.  _ Fuck,  _ how he hated military men. 

“He sure has pretty eyes,” said the soldier, his eyes cold and his breath reeking of Tabac. 

The first soldier came to stand at Todd’s side, hair bleached blonde cheaply. Todd’s patience was growing thin with those men. He really did want to punch them in the throat. “Say, are you from around here?”

“Let me pass,” Todd said, gritting his teeth. He knew getting riled up would do him no good as he wanted to get to Amanda as quickly as possible, as well as un-hit as he could manage. Still, he couldn’t control some of the anger in his tone.

“He’s even hotter when he’s mad,” said the tan soldier in his way, grinning like the whole deal was as amusing as it could possibly get.

Todd opened his mouth and tightened his fist, one hundred percent ready to throw hands when someone spoke behind him in a thick accent.

“Hello there, I’m sorry it took me so long.”

Todd’s first thought was that another soldier came ganging him up and furiously braced himself to simply turn around, kick the guy in the shins and sprint to a different route to Amanda’s work. That was until he noticed the soldiers’ eyes jump to the other man behind him, their expressions turning ugly. 

Todd felt a hand press at his shoulder along with the heat of the new person at his side and his eyes immediately jumped to him, a man who’s voice he never heard, and a face he never saw. 

The man looked at him with sparkling green eyes, face broken in a calm smile. “I’ve been looking everywhere for you, my dear.”

Todd barely had time to grasp the new situation around him. The new man, the man calling him his  _ dear _ , with neat brown hair, glittering necklaces and rings, wearing tailored trousers and the fanciest white shirt Todd has seen worn in such an informal place as a literal stinking alleyway, completed with a vibrant yellow jacket. What?

The blonde soldier voiced out his exact thoughts. “Who are you?”

The strange —  _ filthy rich _ — man’s hand slid from Todd’s shoulder to the middle of his back, settling there like it was the most normal thing. Todd tried incredibly hard not to jolt from the sudden change. 

Of two things Todd was certain: one, that man was no soldier; two, he definitely needed no help from a stranger to save himself.

Another thing was that now that Mr. Stranger was already running his mouth and hands wild in the whole situation, Todd had it best to just play along and wait for the whole thing to be over as soon as possible, even if his pride took a little blow.

“I’m with him,” answered the man easily, smile not faltering. “Why don’t you two take a little walk—” He brought his finger up, removing his hand from Todd, twirling it in a small circle. The soldiers made a sound like a choked gasp as they straightened their pose, hands glued to their sides as they followed those gestures. Todd stared with wide eyes as they forcefully left like grunting toy soldiers, letting out helpless and confused noises.

The man’s hand dropped from the air at his side, and Todd turned his head to face him with furrowed eyebrows and a demanding look. 

The man put his hands on his hips, shrugging just a little. “Don’t hold it against them. They’re harmless, if bothersome.”

“I’m widely aware,” Todd replied curtly. “I could’ve handled this perfectly well myself.”

The man’s entire atmosphere changed in a moment, from content to surprised. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to offend you in any way,” he said apologetically, if so a little stunned. A part of Todd believed him. The other was too irritated to mind. “I just thought you could use a hand here.”

Todd just wanted that day to be over. “Well, I didn’t.”

“Will you need a hand, then, in me escorting you home?” The man asked. “Where are you heading?”

“I’m perfectly capable, thank you,” Todd said, not an ounce of thanks in his voice as he ran a hand over his stubble. “I’m going to the Rowdy Three.”

"I know you are," replied the man, looking at Todd oddly. A mixture of curiosity and endearment. 

Then, probably the last thing Todd was up for happening that day happened, and the man leaned closer abruptly and pushed him against the wall. His hand was leaning against the wall next to Todd’s head as his head was tipped down to Todd’s, and Todd was suddenly very aware of how sharply the man’s eyes looked at him, the sun-kissed freckles on his skin, the sweet and foreign smell that was now in Todd’s everywhere. 

“Act normal,” he said quietly, one strand of brown hair falling to his forehead. Todd really wasn’t up to being so close to a weirdly attractive stranger so early in the night. God, how long has it been since he was in a similar situation, under different circumstances? Definitely too long, as his nerves were going absolutely wild. “I’m being followed.”

Todd almost missed those last words, and blinked in shock a few times to clear his head. He opened his mouth — to ask literally _ anything _ , anything! — when the man leaned back away, took Todd’s hand in his own and began strolling forward, taking Todd along with him. “Just walk.”

“What — no!” Todd stopped dead in his tracks, drawing his hand out of the man’s grasp. “That’s — this isn’t happening right now. No.”

“What do you mean,  _ no _ ?” The man asked him incredulously, looming close to Todd with a deep frown. Well,  _ he  _ had absolutely no right to feel confused. “We have to go,  _ now _ .”

“No, I don’t have to do anything!” Todd argued. “What I need is to get to my sister’s. So, kindly, just fuck off.”

“Listen, I’m sorry I dragged you into this, I truly am.” He spoke quickly, like the words were running too fast in his head. He looked almost sincere. Todd had no idea what to think of him. “But now you are in danger and it’s best if you’d just come along, alright?”

“ _ Danger _ ?” Todd cried out, to which the other man shushed him. “I can’t believe this. You put me in this position!”

“I’m sorry!” The other man said furiously, voice failing to stay quiet. “It’s of no use, now, anyway. Just follow my lead.”

Todd rolled his eyes, knowing he had no other option and obeyed with boiling annoyment and frustration. He took the man’s offered hand — cold, long fingers, soft to the touch — and began walking quickly. 

In a moment’s notice, Todd understood just how close they were to getting caught by whatever it was that was after the man at his side. There were dark figures, shadowy and almost melting through the air, merging into the alleyway from the cracks in the walls and road who began limping after them silently. 

It was absolutely frightening. Todd hated the rush of adrenaline he got from it, as if it was something to enjoy.

“I didn’t mean to get you involved,” said the man, another attempt at an apology. “I only wanted to help you with the soldiers, really.” 

They were strolling awfully close, and the man spoke right in Todd’s ear. He buried a burst of bubbling laughter at the ridiculousness of it all with his entire being. “I didn’t need your help.”

The man kept quiet for a few moments before speaking up again, talking aimlessly to Todd about pretty much nothing, but with the gravity and descriptiveness as if it meant everything. What was it with his accent, anyway?

“Do you agree there is something that brought you here today to this very spot with me, more so than the horrid military march?”

“My sister’s pub,” Todd offered dryly.

The man honest-to-god cackled, and Todd shook his head in what he told himself was not a fond manner, in any way, shape or form. 

Then he noticed dark figures beginning to merge in front of them as well, and his breath hitched in his throat at the sudden change. Without missing a beat, the tall man pulled him closer, and Todd was almost thankful that he did. The man knew how to avoid the figures — blobs? Men? Whatever — and swiftly walked Todd through different dark corners until they reached a sudden dead end.

“Shit,” Todd hissed.

The man looked at Todd with mischief and reached for his waist. “Hold on.”

Before Todd could argue that they were, actually, quite stuck, he found air flowing below his feet and through his clothes, and the next thing he knew he found himself so high above the town it was practically considered flying.

Todd tightened his hold on the man, eyes wide as they soared above the houses until a certain height, all the while the man acted as if it was all just a normal afternoon to him.

“Drop your legs,” he instructed, “Keep walking.”

Todd felt like he swallowed his tongue whole. He obeyed, heart in his throat, bringing his knees which were curled to his chest straightened down. He couldn’t possibly bring himself to let go of the man’s hand in his, finding comfort in the other still kept on his waist as he tried to get a hold of the new situation. 

Slowly he began making motions with his legs as if he was walking, right there in the air, about 600 feet above the ground. It felt like treading on leaves, only he couldn’t see them.

“That’s right,” the man encouraged him.

They went above the parade, and Todd watched the soldiers march beneath them and the people dancing as the sun began to set. Todd began to breathe evenly again, calming down slightly. It really was amazing how he managed not to freak out completely. 

The man grinned at him, eyes reflecting something Todd couldn’t decipher. “Brilliant.”

Todd couldn’t help the smile of pride spreading on his face. The man looked at him with his odd gaze, as if trying to telepathically tell Todd something. The setting sun reflected on him, warm and yellow and comforting, and Todd had a feeling that even without the sun the man would glow the same way. Perhaps there was something lit inside of him. 

It was all very surreal. 

No one noticed them in the sky, strolling above the houses as if it was the easiest thing. Eventually, they made it to the building of Amanda’s pub, and they skipped over to the balcony on the top floor.

The man stood on the railing as he dropped Todd onto the balcony, and Todd’s feet met the floor gently, the man’s hand in his still.

“I’ll draw them off,” he said, turning serious. “Wait here until the coast is clear, you shouldn’t go out in the meantime.”

The man took his hand from Todd’s embrace, and Todd could only nod in reply. He nearly forgot about the dark blobs-shaped-men they came across what seemed like years ago. Suddenly, he was very, very tired.

The man smiled sunnily at him, giving a curt nod, then without warning jumped off the ledge without taking his eyes off Todd and to the streets, about seven floors down. 

Todd, anxiety settling in him reached over to the railing and leaned forward, his eyes frantically searching for the man walking on the ground, failing to find him in the crowd. 

Was he losing his mind?

Amanda was just in the situation she loved: serving the crowded Rowdy Three, hands brewing drinks as she laughed loudly at Gripps and Fogel’s awful stories about burglaries (it was ridiculous how they came even when they didn’t have a shift, simply to hang out in their pub without ordering). With the military march in town, made to bring the town together in such times of war, Amanda found even more customers than usual. 

From the other side of the bar, Martin reached over to her and whispered in her ear. As he leaned back away, he looked at her with worried eyes. His blonde hair was sticking everywhere from sweat, having moved the new deliveries in the backroom.

“My brother?” Amanda asked him, mostly surprise in her voice. It was getting late, she didn’t think Todd was going to come at all that evening.

“On the roof,” Martin said, eyebrows raised, and Amanda raised her own at that. How did he possibly manage to get to the balcony without walking through the pub’s doors? Did he actually land there as Martin said?

She apologized quickly to Cross who was with her behind the bar, excusing herself through the back door to the stairs, barely missing Cross calling after her: “Come back soon, Drummer!”

She practically ran up the stairs until she reached the balcony, finding Todd leaning against the railing and gazing down at the town with a typical frown.

“Todd?” Amanda called, breaking him out of his dazed state. She stood next to him by the ledge, her back against the railing as he turned his head to look at her, noticing her presence beside him. 

“Hey Amanda,” he said, close to a sigh.

“Did you for real just land on my roof, man? Did you turn into an angel or something?” She asked him. “The hat shop became really that boring that you decided to kill yourself?”

Todd shook his head, half a smile on his face. He didn’t reply for a moment or two, before speaking up again. “I feel like I’m dreaming.”

Someone walked down the balcony, not sparing them a glance. Amanda squinted her eyes, deciding it was best for them to find a more private place to talk. She then took Todd by the arm down to the storage room of the pub on the first floor. 

“What?” Amanda asked after Todd finished his story, seated on one of the boxes Martin arranged earlier that afternoon. “You sure he wasn’t a wizard?”

“I don’t know,” Todd replied, wondering. “He was... odd. But he did help me, somewhat.”

Amanda scoffed. “Yeah, in the mess he put you in himself.” Todd couldn’t help but agree. “But man, what a story! That’s some cool shit I’d wish to see, I’m telling you.”

Despite himself, Todd agreed with her statement. It  _ was _ cool. It was thrilling! He finally felt like something, _anything_ was happening to him other than making hats and cleaning his already tidy flat. 

For the first time in a very long time, Todd felt like he existed. As his own. He was flying above the streets less than an hour ago, escaping strange creatures with a strange man he just met. Yes, the man was an idiot and was absolutely to blame for the whole fiasco. 

Still, Todd couldn’t wholeheartedly wish it never happened.

As messed up as that made him. 

“Don’t tell me he’s gotten your heart, man,” Amanda cut through his thoughts. “If that was that wizard Gently he would’ve eaten it right up.”

Todd shook his head, dismissing it immediately. “It wasn’t him, though. Gently would never show up here after the mess he had with the prince.” 

It wasn’t like he knew how Gently looked like, no one did — but it couldn’t possibly be him. It was too risky for that wizard to come to town. Everyone knew how vile and dangerous he was, even if greatly intriguing. 

“I’m not so sure,” she mused in response. “These are dangerous times. They say even the Wizard of the Waste is back on the prowl.”

Todd opened his mouth to comment on that when Martin walked inside the storage room, wiping his hands on a towel over his shoulder. “Listen, Drummer, Beast is done with her shift.”

“Be right there,” Amanda responds with a nod. 

Martin nodded back before heading out. “Alright.”

Todd stood up from the box he sat upon, offering Amanda a hand to get up, though he knew well enough she didn’t need it. “I’m going home. I’ll see you tomorrow, right?”

“Of course, dude.” Amanda took his hand, and he brought her to her feet. “Listen, Todd,” she started, voice and expression growing serious, and Todd knew what was coming before the words were even out of her mouth. “Are you going to spend your whole life in that shop?”

Todd tried to suppress a sigh with all his will power. “It’s the only thing I could get with my education, you know that. Besides, I’m the eldest,” he added, knowing both him and Amanda understood what that meant:  _ it means I do what it takes so you could work in what you wish to.  _

“That’s not right,” Amanda insisted. He was growing really sick of having that conversation every two days. “Do you even want to be a hatter?”

A woman with colourful hair and eyes like shattered glass (who Todd could only imagine being Beast) walked in on her way to the back door. “Bye, ‘Manda.”

“Bye, Beast,” Amanda smiled at her. “See you tonight.”

“I’ll get on my way,” Todd said, squeezing Amanda’s shoulder fondly. 

Amanda looked at him with a frown, biting the inside of her cheek visibly. Todd knew she understood the conversation was a dead end, and let it go. “Todd, you’ve got to take more care,” she said instead. “You worry too much about me and too little about yourself.”

Todd walked by the building of his shop, entering his own apartment which was built on its side. He went inside, hidden from the wind raging in the streets, his shoulders falling in a sigh as he stood in the doorway. It was the same he left it that morning: the walls all too bare, the space all too empty, the rooms leaving him all too alone. The silence was deafening and he felt choked.

He took off his coat and hanged it by the door, making his way to his kitchen and ready to turn on the loud radio, the only source of sound in his apartment on most nights.

His fingers met the radio on the dining table when he heard his door creak open. Frowning, he went back to his front door, pretty sure he had locked it when he came inside.

As he stood in front of the front door he was met with the sight of a tall, muscular man with fair hair. He wore a black tailored suit and a hat whose shadow covered his face in a way that Todd wasn’t sure was caused by the lightning in his apartment. Todd  _ was _ sure it was a complete stranger he didn’t want in his home.

“Sorry — Who are you?” 

Todd was now certain he had locked the door, since he lived on the first floor and it was often that either homeless people knocked on his door, or that mislead customers thought his house was the hat shop. That man didn’t look homeless one bit, and Todd sure as hell never made him a hat. 

The tall man looked around, or so Todd got the impression he did when he tilted his head from side to side, as Todd couldn’t see his eyes. “What a cheap little apartment, full of cheap little things.” Now he was looking straight at Todd. Todd felt his eyes glaring at him. “And you’re quite cheap-looking yourself.”

Todd, even in his startled and confused and utterly exhausted state managed to feel offended. He clenched his jaw, holding back his tongue. “I have no idea who you are, but you’re not welcomed here.” He gathered himself and strolled to his door, opening it for the man. “You should leave now.”

The man clicked his tongue, like a dumb cat. “You’re very brave, talking to the Wizard of the Waste like that.”

“Wizard of the Waste?” Todd asked, dumbfounded. The Wizard of the Waste didn’t just  _ waltz _ into people’s apartments. Wasn’t he supposed to be a wise and frightening being? At the moment, Todd felt mostly annoyed.

He heard movement behind him and tilted his head back, startled to see what could only be guessed as the wizard’s two henchpeople, two black-blob beings who prevented him from leaving — with a weird resemblance to what had followed him earlier that day. What the hell? Did all the wizards have the same magic tricks? Those beings wore colourful jackets and white pants as if they were honest-to-god men. Maybe they were. Maybe the Wizard of the Waste wanted to make Todd like them. 

Todd spun his head back to the wizard in his apartment, anxiety dropping to his stomach as he saw the wizard… swelling. There was no other word. He grew in the space between Todd’s walls and ceiling at rapid speed and before Todd let out a single breath he was massive. 

In half a second the wizard leaned forward, leaving Todd not chance to bring his hands up in defence to protect himself, to do anything, and flew right through him out the door despite being far too big to fit in it.

As the Wizard of the Waste passed through Todd as if he was thin air, Todd felt a shiver cold as ice go down his spine. For a moment his body froze and for the next, it felt like he was burning, then everything settled. The ringing in his ears was still loud, as the beating of his heart in his throat.

Todd looked back around, seeing the Wizard of the Waste standing on his doorstep with his henchpeople behind him, normal-sized as if nothing happened. Todd’s eyes met the wizard’s for the first time. He smiled, and his teeth were a little too sharp, his skin a little too glimmering. “You won’t be able to tell anyone about the spell. Tell Icarus I said hi.”

The door shut closed in Todd’s face, leaving him alone with the wizard’s words hanging in the air around him. He felt aching all over, nauseated and weak from whatever it was that wizard did to him.

Wizards were not that better than soldiers, Todd came to a conclusion. After locking the door ( _ again _ ) he made his way slowly with exhausted limbs to the kitchen to turn on the radio and fill the silence. 

As he brought the radio to his face, holding it up and searching for his favourite station, he was flabbergasted at his wrinkled fingers holding the radio. He dropped it in shock, startled, bringing his hands close to his face. He watched them, turning his hands and moving his fingers to prove they were his own, though it wasn’t possible, they were so —  _ old _ . 

He brought them quickly to his face, trembling as frantic realizations dawned on him about what the Wizard of the Waste had actually done to him.  _ Of course _ a wizard won’t just come to him and send him to deliver a message, he had to  _ curse _ Todd. 

Todd stumbled his way into his bathroom, waddling to stand in front of the mirror, blinking to himself frantically as he couldn’t believe what he was seeing. 

He wore the same clothes, and he had the same haircut and same stubble, but his skin, his posture, his whole  _ body _ was probably aged seventy years ahead of him.

“Is this really me?” He asked aloud, his throat dry and voice hoarse. Oh  _ god _ . “I have to keep it together.” He found himself walking around in his apartment in circles, practically jumping out of his skin at what was happening to him. At what already did. “I have to stay calm.”

His breath was running short as he examined his hands, examined the mirror, heart beating 200 beats per minute. “There’s no use panicking,” he blurted, running a hand through his hair, trying not to pull his entire scalp from his head. He’ll be fine. He’ll be _ fine _ .

Amanda stepped into Todd’s hat shop, wearing her everyday clothes, one of their mother’s packed meals in her bag from visiting their parents. She came by to have lunch with Todd, as they did every Wednesday noon since about the time Todd took over their father’s shop. 

“Hey guys!” Amanda greeted the workers in the counter.

“Hey Brotzman girl,” replied one of them, who Amanda was fairly sure worked in that shop even before Todd himself started to.

“How you hanging on?” Amanda asked, making her way to the door leading to the workshop. 

The worker chuckled. “Thrilling, as always.”

“Sounds about right,” Amanda said with a shrug before opening the door to the workshop. She waved to the workers and strolled to Todd’s office, opening the door with a ringing, “Todd!”

Todd’s empty room greeted her cheerful tone instead of her older brother. 

“Amanda, Todd didn’t come to work yet,” said Liz from behind her.

Amanda turned around to face Liz, worry on her face. She breathed in an attempt at holding herself from jumping into any conclusions. She quickly made her way to the back door of the shop and to the neighbouring building, Todd’s apartment. 

Todd was unaware of Amanda entering with her spare key until she knocked on the door to his bedroom. He sat on the bed, tucked in his blanket with his back to the door, looking out the window in the wall by his bed.

At the sound of knocking he tensed up in his place, nervousness slipping into his breath.

“Todd?” Amanda called, knocking again.

“Don’t come in,” he instructed quickly, “I’ve got a terrible cold. I don’t want you to catch it.”

“You sound awful,” he heard her reply from the other side of the door. “It’s like you’re ninety.”

Todd winced at her comment. “I think I’ll stay in bed today,” he said in what he hoped sounded innocent enough.

“It’s probably for the best,” Amanda offered, and Todd sighed in relief, trying not to feel the guilt sink at her disappointed tone. “Feel better soon, dude.”

“Thanks, Amanda,” Todd replied as he heard her quietening footsteps, unsure if she heard him. Only after long minutes when he was sure his apartment was indeed empty once more he struggled to get off his bed.  _ Here we go _ .

He slowly made his way to the mirror in his bathroom, looking at his reflection with a deep frown. Unfortunately, he looked the same as the night before. Perhaps it  _ was _ fortunate. That he did not, what, age even more dramatically through the night. Still, a part of him hoped that it was all a fever dream.

It was not.

It was fine, he tried to reassure himself. He was still healthy. He could manage living like that, he had no reason to go out to the world and search for who the fuck was Icarus to tell him his  _ whatever _ that Wizard of the Waste was to him was saying hi.

Doubt settled in when he thought about Amanda. What was he to tell her when she came over the next time? What could he possibly do to explain it to her, and keep her safe in the process?

Todd stared at himself in the mirror. He really had no other choice. He couldn’t stay home.

But what would he do about Amanda in  _ that _ case? They met up nearly every day of the week. He couldn’t possibly get out without a warning, she’d die of worry.

Suddenly it dawned on him that he even though it was magic, Todd had no idea how long his new body was going to keep working as it did. Did he have numbered months left? He  _ needed _ answers, if not a straight-up someone to cast on him a curse-breaking spell. 

He put on his coat and a dark hat over his head, wincing with every step he made towards his kitchen.

“It’s not easy being old,” Todd muttered under his breath as he waddled inside the kitchen, putting food for his journey in a bag before throwing it over his shoulder. 

On his way to leave his place for a period of time he didn’t know how long was going to turn out to be, he wrote a quick note explaining vaguely to Amanda that he left town and would let her know when he’ll be coming back.

He knew there was a chance he won’t see her for the time being, and hoped very much that everything would turn out okay. He could even be happy if it was only partly.

He left his apartment from the back door to avoid any of his workers, customers, even Amanda. While walking through the alleyways to minimize making his way through the main streets he walked by a group of men older than Todd was the morning before, but so much younger than he felt now. 

“This war is going to take quite the blow on us,” one of the men said, reading out of the newspaper in his hands. 

“‘Quite a blow’?” Spoke another. “It’s going to be outright terrible, is what it’s going to be. We’re going out there not to defend our kingdom, we’re going to die.”

He reached midtown and began crossing the bridge over the train tracks, stopping on the first couple of steps as he tried to make his way up with as close to no pain as he could.

“Excuse me,” said someone behind him. 

Todd turned his head to the side, seeing a dark-skinned woman smiling brightly with dimples. She grinned an awful lot like Amanda, and Todd’s heart sighed. 

“Do you need a hand?” She asked him, and Todd quickly shook his head.

“No no,” he said, hoping he didn’t come off as rude as he felt. He didn’t mind that much, but the last thing he needed was someone reminding him how old his body actually was. No, he didn’t need any favours from any stranger walking across a bridge. 

After what felt like an entire afternoon, Todd reached the main gate to the town. He was standing in front of a wagon filled with hay, the owner looking back at Todd with a worried glance.

“Of course I could give you a ride, sir,” he said, “But where are you off to?”

“Just a bit further than where you’re going,” Todd replied, holding tight to the strap of the bag on his shoulder. 

That did it. Only an hour later, Todd sat on the back of the wagon with his legs dangling over the edge, his back leaning against the hay and his hometown getting further and further away from him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hey guys!! i know this fandom is p much dead but i hold this show so dear to my heart i just had to make something. the second chapter is already done and i'll post it after exams are over, so probably this weekend! let me know what are your thoughts so far :)


	2. In Which Todd Enters a Castle and a Bargain

The wagon came to a stop. It wasn’t nearly close enough to the Wastes as Todd hoped, but it sure as hell was better than he would’ve had it with a different driver. That man was heading the furthest from the town Todd managed to find.

After asking his driver for directions to the Wastes, Todd nodded gratefully and thanked the man for letting him join his ride. His body ached from the long sitting and the rocking of the wagon, and he knew it was stil going to be a long time until he found Icarus. 

If Icarus was even in the Wastes.

If Icarus was even a  _ wizard _ , like Todd assumed.

Now worry crept on him. He shook it, knowing it was already too late. That was his best option and he would take it.

“I don’t recommend it, sir,” said the driver to Todd. Todd was having a hard time being called  _ sir _ by someone who was probably at Todd’s age if Todd walked by him just a day before. “Nothing but witches and wizards ahead.”

Todd couldn’t find the heart in him to tell that worried man that it was the same reason Todd went there. “Thank you,” he said instead, offering a smile.

The man smiled back in what looked almost sympathetic, and Todd couldn’t believe he met a single person more awkward than him. Truly amazing. 

At that, he began his journey, and even after long hours of agonizing treks he felt like he hardly made any progress. He decided to take a break and sat down on one hill, watching the view of the unnamed city below him as the sky turned a deep shade of red, darkening slowly while he ate. The wind grew quiet in his hair and clothes, blowing through the grass underneath him. He found a sense of serenity in it. 

After finishing his packed dinner, Todd looked around before getting up. His eyes caught sight of a long wooden stick stuck in a bush beside him, and joyed in the thought of finding himself an improvised walking cane.

Todd brought himself up to his legs and walked to it, basically wrestling with the bush and after what seemed like forever, managed to take the stick out. To his disappointment, he found out that it was actually the backbone to a turnip-headed scarecrow.

Todd sighed and threw it away though before he could move, the scarecrow he just tossed to lay on the other side of the small hill jumped and balanced itself on its stick, apparently needing no help whatsoever to stay up on its own.

Was it a part of the Wizard of the Waste’s scheme? Todd didn’t even know what to think anymore.

The scarecrow was a turnip head with hay for hair and an elegant black hat, matching an elegant black suit and bowtie. 

“How do you stand up?” Todd voiced aloud his thought quietly, studying the scarecrow with his gaze.

The scarecrow’s head had a face drawn on it. Two simple dots for eyes and a wide toothy smile.

If Todd didn’t know any better, he would’ve thought the scarecrow’s smile was growing. Maybe he didn’t know better, he thought glumly to himself, as he so happened to find out in the past day. Or maybe he was just finally losing it.

“Your head’s a turnip,” Todd said, just because it was nice to actually talk to someone — something — normally for the first time since he woke up. “I always hated turnips.”

The scarecrow jumped in its place, trying to communicate. Oh god. 

“At least you’re not upside-down anymore,” Todd offered helpfully before turning away. “Bye, then.”

He made his way from the hill away from the scarecrow and deeper into the Wastes. As he went further away from the city lights he found himself surrounded by high hills and mountains, the dark grass under his shoes spread all over the land around him.

As time passed he struggled harder and harder against the cold wind. It was getting late, the sky nearly completely darkened and stars beginning to come out. In just an hour or so, he would have only the light of the moon to guide him in his search for Icarus.

Todd looked back to check his progress, eyes squinting as he noticed jumpy movement made by the turnip-head scarecrow bouncing after him, something held in one of its reached arms. 

Todd sighed at the sight of the scarecrow. “Don’t follow me. You don’t owe me anything,” he called out as it made its way closer. “You must be magical — whatever you are. I’ve had enough of wizards and spells for a lifetime!”

The turnip-head stopped in its place just in front of Todd, its drawn smile still stuck to its face, unmoving now that it came to a halt.

“Just go stand somewhere,” Todd said at it. “I don’t need your help.”

Todd turned back around from the waiting scarecrow — what it waited for he had no clue — and continued on his way, only the wind in his ears as he walked with his head low. Not long after, he could hear thumping noises behind him and knew it meant the damn scarecrow didn’t listen to him.

He decided to ignore that… that  _ creature _ , and maybe it’ll go away. He stopped briefly to ease his breath and could hear the scarecrow stop in its tracks behind him, waiting. Then something dropped to the ground behind him in a quiet sound, and Todd shot his eyes at the ground beneath the scarecrow’s stick, seeing a polished walking cane on the grass. 

Todd’s eyes widened at that, and a wave of gratitude washed over him. He looked back at the scarecrow, not knowing what to say. “This… Thank you.”

He nodded curtly at the scarecrow in affirmation and leaned down to pick up the cane, his back very nearly killing him. As he straightened back up he gave the scarecrow a somewhat pained smile, moving his weight to rest against the cane. 

“It’s great,” he added, then jokingly said: “While you’re at it, what do you say about finding me someplace to crash?”

The turnip-head jumped in its place once, biding Todd goodbye, and bounced off to the distance. Todd couldn’t help it and cracked a small grin, tightening his grip over the wooden cane with one hand, tightening his grip over the closed buttons of his coat with another. 

He continued his journey, now at an easier pace. As he made his way, the sky then barely lit with the dim light of the setting sun, he noticed a battleship flying to the horizon, on its way to the battlefield. It threw Todd deep into worry.

A few hours later, it was already around the middle of the night. Feeling weak and tired, Todd sat down, his eyes up to the full moon and the constellations above his head.

He tried very hard not to think of all the nights Amanda and he spent on the roof of their home with their father, learning about the divinity of stars and how they fell to the earth in the form of demons. To not think of how he never really paid much attention to the content, more to his father’s voice and the warmth of Amanda and their dad by each of his sides, the contentment he was in which was so uncommon with his rushed thoughts and anxiety-ridden impulses. 

He failed. 

The smell of smoke reached him and tore him out of his guilt. A burning fireplace, somewhere nearby. 

_ There might be a cabin around here, _ he thought. He couldn’t see very far with the dark but stood up anyway to check. The view in front of him caused his jaw to slack open. 

Making its way over was Gently’s Moving Castle, with the scarecrow — he should just call it Turnip Head and let it be over — jumping ahead of it and towards the shocked Todd. 

Gently’s Castle, as it had to be it, was just as it was described by his town, albeit much more bizarre. It was enormous and built almost face-like, steam coming from what looked like an opening and closing giant mouth, walking on thin bird-like feet. It was entirely made of different kinds of metals mushed together. It had nothing elegant about it, nothing like what Gently was described as.

Turnip Head circled Todd as the Castle neared them at its slow pace, and the smell of smoke became more and more striking. It was like a steam machine. 

“Turnip, please don’t tell me this is Gently’s Castle,” Todd said stunned. “This isn’t what I meant when I said I wanted someplace to crash.”

The Castle went above them, and Todd watched in something close to amazement at the moving of the machinery. Then, with Todd and Turnip Head still beneath it, the Castle came into a stop. 

Todd’s breath was stuck in his chest, a sudden fear of getting crushed by the giant thing catching him. The Castle let out a noise which could only be described as a whine, and it looked like all its parts suddenly relaxed into place. 

What the hell? Todd was sure castles were supposed to act like that. To act at all, for the matter. 

Then it continued on its way. It was no longer above them and started waddling onwards, and Todd was stuck in his place as he watched the back of the Castle move. 

At the bottom of its back was built a small door and a few steps leading to it. Turnip Head jumped after the Castle, taking its place on the doorpost, its hair of hay blowing in the wind and motion of the Castle. It was almost as if it motioned for Todd to come along. 

Todd realized suddenly,  _ that’s the way in _ . 

He sped up and began running with his cane in his hand and his other holding the hat on his head in place, chasing after the Castle’s back door, eager to reach it. Panting, he managed to catch the railing by one side of the steps in his palms and jumped on to the doorpost next to Turnip Head.

Todd tried the handle of the wooden door, finding it open. He pushed the door inside, finding himself in front of a stone stairway leading up into a dark stone floor. 

He turned his head to Turnip Head, a smile of relief on his face. “It’s really warm here. I think I’ll go inside,” he said, then added, “Thank you.”

Turnip Head jumped off the doorway, hopping behind the Castle as it couldn’t keep up with the Castle’s speed. 

“Now it really is goodbye,” Todd called loudly at Turnip Head with a grin, hoping it heard him still.

He felt incredibly relieved as he turned to face the open door, looking inside before moving. Worry settled in his guts as he thought about entering into Gently’s Castle, the wizard known for his violent tendencies and his like of tormenting humans. Todd knew he could very much be in graver danger if he went inside, rather than continuing his journey on foot in search of Icarus. 

He knew, also, it made much more sense that Gently himself would know where to find Icarus rather than a common person. A chill ran down his spine, and not because of the cold stinging his skin. What would he do if he came across the Wizard of the Waste again?

Todd decided he had no options. It seemed to happen rather often these past few days. He tried to comfort himself in the thought that even Gently wouldn’t want an ancient heart like Todd’s. 

Then he entered the room with defiant steps, much more serious than he was a moment before as he bid farewell to Turnip Head from the doorstep. 

After entering the dimly lit place, Todd closed the door behind him and climbed the stone steps, holding his cane in one hand and leaning against the railway with his other. He made his way from the top of the stairs across the large room, sitting on a plain wooden chair in front of the dying fire in the stone fireplace. 

The fire was the only light source in the whole floor, and Todd couldn’t make out anything besides the wooden staircase close to him leading up and the large window in the room, the view of the Wastes and the dark night sky seen through it.

Todd sighed as he took off his bag to the floor, the understanding of his action now washing over his anxiety-ridden stomach as he sat in the silent room. The quiet was broken by his breathes and the sound of the fire crackling on the remaining wood. He tried to warm his cold hands near the flames, but it was already dying. 

Todd stood up, picking two cut blocks of wood on the floor by the fireplace and threw it on the fire before sitting back down. 

Now that his eyes have gotten used to the dark, he looked around and observed the room again. It looked neglected — by time, or by carelessness — with scattered bottles all around, open books on every surface, spider webs on the ceiling and in corners on the floor.

Maybe turning old meant nothing would surprise him anymore, Todd mused to himself. As he leaned his back again against the chair and faced the fire, he let his eyes glaze over and head drop, dozing off in the warm glow of the fireplace after his long day.

In the silent room, someone spoke up with a hoarse voice and a sharp end to the words.

“That’s some spell you’re under.”

Todd’s eyes shot open, focusing slowly on the fire in front of him, which now sported a pair of eyes. He was almost sure he was hallucinating.

The fire watched him with a mix of curiosity and mischief, or maybe it was just boredom. He had trouble reading the  _ expression  _ of a fucking  _ flame _ . The flames parted slightly a bit lower than where the eyes were, in what could be stretched to be called a smile. 

“It’s won’t be easy to break,” continued the fire. 

"The fire talked,” Todd muttered to himself. “Of course it did.”

“And you can’t even tell anyone about it,” the fire said, and now he knew for sure it was mischief in the fire’s voice. “How sad.”

He huffed at the fire’s belittlement of Todd’s situation. “You’re Gently?”

“Wrong!” The fire exclaimed, growing huge until it took all the space in the fireplace before shrinking again to the size of Todd’s head or so. “I’m the fire demon, Bartine.”

“Well then, Bartine, can you break the spell I’m under?” Todd asked, hope rising in his voice. Maybe he could get it all over just then and there, without coming across Gently, without passing a message to yet another wizard. 

“Easy. If you break the spell that chains me to this place, I’ll break your spell in a flash.”

Todd raised his eyebrow, folding his arms over his chest. “In other words, bargain with a demon.” He tilted his head to the side, trying with all his might not to wince at his disappointment. He knew there was no way Bartine could help him without it all blowing up in his face even more than everything already had. “You sure you can keep that promise?”

“Demons don’t make promises,” Bartine replied.

Todd chuckled despite himself. “I suggest you look elsewhere for someone to trick.”

“But I’m an exploited demon!” Bartine cried out, and Todd couldn't help but smile in amusement. “I’m chained here by a contract with Dirk, and he works me to death. I’m the one who keeps the Castle moving, and he has all too many demands.”

Todd’s smile dropped as he frowned at that. Was it possible he wasn’t in Gently’s Castle after all? “Dirk?”

“Dirk Gently,” explained Bartine. “You know, the wizard.”

“That’s his full name?” Mused Todd. “It’s a stupid one.”

But the demon already moved back to their earlier conversation, with Todd left in his hazy state of mind from the warmth and odd calmness, despite all the risks he knew were hovering over his head like black ravens. 

“If you figure out our secret contract, the spell will break,” she said. “If you’ll do that, I’ll break your spell too.”

Todd wondered if Dirk Gently would realize that quick he was under a curse, as did Bartine. He wondered if Dirk Gently would help him out without a bargain, so he would be able to return back to Amanda and his cold little life. 

A pang of ache hit his heart. His shop with warm colours and vibrant hats, with cheerful people, yet always making him feel so cold and detached. His apartment, his supposed home, always causing his mind to rush so loud and harsh. If it wasn’t for Amanda, he wasn’t sure he would’ve stayed there. He hoped he wouldn’t have. 

“I thought you don’t do promises,” Todd told her, already dozing off in his chair again. 

He was already asleep when Bart replied: “Old man. Old man! Boy… I’ve got my doubts about him.” 

A sudden knock on the door to the Castle stirred Todd awake. He opened his eyes wearily, looking around the now sunlit room from his place on the wooden chair, a wave of helplessness washing over him as he remembered where he was.

He heard footsteps rushing above him on the second floor and quickly closed his eyes, faking sleep. He heard the stomping of the person in the house — probably Dirk Gently — walk down the stairs hurriedly, then come to a stop at his side. 

“That’s weird,” said a woman next to him, her face close to his. Todd thought to himself,  _ just one thing? _ “Who the hell is this?”

Todd tried to seem as natural and unconscious as possible at her words, relieved when someone called from outside the castle.

“Zacharia!” 

Todd heard her move after that from him, as she muttered to herself. “When did he even get in?”

Todd risked it and half-opened his left eye, the one that was facing the direction of the door. He caught a glimpse of a black woman with short hair clutching a blue robe from the table and putting it over her shoulders. With her back towards Todd, she put on the hood to cover her face and closed the robe.

She walked down the stairs and cleared her throat. “Stand by,” she called to the man on the other side of the door. She then reached her hand to the handle and switched something on the door, because just then the view from the window changed and the light was different, as the afternoon sun. There was the sound of city clutter entering through the window. 

The door changed its colour, Todd realized as the woman opened it. It was now blue. Todd was certain it was green the night before. 

“Hello, Mister Mayor.”

Todd couldn’t see the man standing in front of who was probably 'Zacharia'. “The sun is already high, Zacharia,” he said solemnly. “Is the Sorcerer Icarus at home?”

Todd’s eyes widened from his place on the chair, lips pursed to keep silent. Icarus was  _ there _ ? In Gently’s Castle? Who else lived there, the King’s damn console?

“Sorcerer Icarus is out,” Zacharia said. “I answer in his place.”

The mayor fumbled in his pocket for something, until he found it and reached it out for Zacharia. “An invitation from His Majesty,” he explained. “It has come to war. His Majesty desires every wizard and magician, even the witches, to aid our homeland.”

Todd decided he couldn’t keep at it for long, and it was just best to get answers, even if he dreaded coming in contact with the witch (he assumed). He was already in her home, after all. 

“His presence is imperative,” the mayor concluded as Todd stretched his back. “That is all.”

Todd threw more wood on the almost put-out Bartine as he heard the woman close the door and walk up the few stairs to the floor. 

Todd looked up to face her, knowing he had to. To his surprise, the witch in front of him was old and wrinkled just as he was. “War. It’s awful.”

He tried to make conversation instead of being asked dreaded questions. He knew he failed even before she opened her mouth.

The witch watched him through her dark eyes, a shadow cast over her old face by the hood of her robe. She held the letter she was just given in her hands as Bartine emerged again.

“And who might you be?” She asked him sharply. 

Todd smiled nervously at her. “Bartine let me in.”

Bartine made a strange huff at the look Zacharia shot her. “Don’t look at me!” She said defensively. “He wandered here from the Wastes.”

“The Wastes?” Zacharia asked, sounding more surprised than suspicious. “That’s strange. You’re not a wizard, are you?”

She took off her hood as she watched Todd with a frown, and in a moment’s notice, she looked so much younger than just a second ago. Without the hood, she was not older than Todd was before coming across the Wizard of the Waste. 

“A wizard could never get in,” Bartine said matter-of-factly. 

From the closed door, another knock was heard. 

“Zacharia!” Called a muffled voice. 

“A customer?” The witch muttered to herself, putting back the hood of her robe over her head, her skin wrinkling as she aged in a blink of an eye. 

She walked down the stairs and stopped at the doorstep. “Stand by,” she instructed before opening the door, “Now state your purpose.” 

“Mamma sent me,” said a young girl.

“The usual spell?” Zacharia asked, walking up the stairs with the costumer on her tail. 

“Hmm,” replied the girl, reaching the top of the staircase after the witch.

“Behave yourself,” said Zacharia, and with the look she gave him he didn’t know if her words were meant for the girl or himself. 

Todd made his way slowly to the large window, Zacharia searching for something between drawers just next to it. Todd looked outside, not paying attention to the kid at his side, his eyes catching an open sea and quay, seagulls soaring above small houses on the road to the ocean. 

It was the first time Todd had seen the sea since he could remember himself. The sun glimmered against the waves, the water breaking on itself in different blues as the wind blew in it. How he wished he could go to the dock and let his hand touch it. 

“It’s not the Wastes,” was all he managed to breath out in his state of awe. 

“Old man, are you a wizard too?” Asked the girl next to him, tearing him out of his gazing and reminding him of who he was and what it meant being there.

He looked down at her, her black hair in loose braids on each side of her head, looking up at him with curiosity. 

“That’s right, I’m the scariest wizard in the land,” he said, just because he could. He grinned at her, raising his eyebrows. 

She broke into an uneasy smile, and Todd cackled to himself when Zacharia took the girl’s attention again by turning around to face the two of them, a small brown bag held in her hand and knit close with a black string.

“Sprinkle this powder on your ship and the winds will favour it,” said the witch seriously. 

The girl handed Zacharia her coins with a polite smile. “Thank you.” She walked down the stairs, and Todd stood next to Zacharia on the top stair as the kid closed the door behind her. 

Zacharia turned to face him the moment the door closed, her hands folded on her chest. “You can’t just make things up.”

Todd ignored her. He could at least have a  _ little  _ bit of fun in his whole cursed situation. “You should give up this disguise,” he replied instead, motioning with his hand to her hood.

She in response huffed, taking her robe off her head anyway. “It’s not a disguise, it’s magic.”

Someone knocked on the door again.

“The Kingsbury door,” Bartine informed.

Zacharia nodded at the demon in the fireplace and put on her hood again, changing the lock on the door handle. The door turned from blue to red.

“Stand back,” she told the person on the other side before opening the door. 

“Is this the residence of Wizard Gently?” Asked someone. 

Todd could see Zacharia bob her head with a nod. “It is.”

Todd made his way down the stairs, standing behind Zachria in the doorstep. 

“I bear an invitation from His Majesty,” a royal guard said. He looked barely eighteen, with buzzed hair and a dark green uniform with golden decorations. Todd tried not to eye the gun in his grip. “Please inform Wizard Gently that he is required at the Palace.”

Zacharia took the letter from his free hand. “Thank you.”

The guard bowed to Zacharia and ignored Todd completely, leaving them quickly. Todd looked out from the now cleared doorstep, walking out to the mesmerizing streets of their capital city.

They were just a few blocks away from the King’s Palace, and even with the large houses, the Palace was seen clearly. Todd had never seen it with his own eyes. 

The people rushing in the streets were dressed elegantly, and the skies were as blue as it gets, everything all around polished and shiny. The sun was warm against his skin.

“A city fit for a king,” said Todd. 

Zacharia wasn’t as impressed at him. “Better get back in before I lock you out.”

Todd turned back and obeyed silently, his eyes wide with amazement. There really was a reason for his mother’s great love to the capital, he mused to himself as he re-entered the Moving Castle, Zacharia closing the door behind him.

It was magical, despite lacking every bit of magic.

Zacharia left him, walking up the stairs as she threw her robe on the railing. “You need to stop wandering around,” she told him, almost a scold. 

Todd stared at the door and noticed for the first time the lock beneath the handle, a circle divided to quarters, each a colour. At the moment the colour on the top of the circle was red, and Todd turned the lock so it fell on the green. Instantly, the door in front of him changed into a green shade he remembered entering the night before. Todd opened the door with excitement in his veins and leaned outside, holding the doorframe with his hand as his body tangled outside. He faced the now mist-covered view he walked through just a few hours ago, everything windy and grey and cold. 

Todd leaned back inside and changed the lock to the blue quarter and quickly reopened the door, facing the sunny village by the dock where the little girl came from. He stepped outside, the salty smell of sea and fish hitting him strongly. On the ground were tossed newspapers talking about the oncoming war, and Todd pondered on whether picking one up.

He decided to leave it be and came back inside, changing the lock to black, the last option left on the lock. Just as he reached to open the door for the last time, Zacharia’s voice reached him. 

“That’s enough!” She called. “Stop it before you’ll piss me off.”

Todd’s hand itched with curiosity, hovering over the handle of the door. He sighed, letting it drop by his side before turning around to climb the staircase, faced with Zacharia who stood on the top stair. 

“This is a magic house, isn’t it?” Todd asked though it had already been crystal clear to him. 

Zacharia closed her eyes as she pinched the bridge of her nose. “Oh boy.”

“Where does the black one lead?” He asked, clutching the railing with his hand as he started to walk up the stairs. 

Zacharia watched him on the top stair until he reached her, then walked with him towards the drawers next to the large window. “Only Dirk knows.” She opened the first drawer, busy with ingredients as was the top of the shelves. “I’m having breakfast.”

Todd took a look on the covered plates, then around the large table in the middle of the room where Zacharia made room from her unsliced bread and plate of cheese. Besides potion bottles, alcohol and a huge amount of different books sprawled open, there were also a couple of picnic baskets. One of them was open, and Todd peeked to see the food stored inside. 

“But you’ve got bacon and eggs, why eat plain bread?” Todd asked.

“I don’t use the fire when Dirk is away,” the witch replied. “And anyway, it’s not plain. I have cheese.” 

Todd frowned at that. He picked the open picnic basket and held it over his left arm, then moved to the wall to pick a frying pan and hold it with his right hand. “I’ll cook for you.”

Zacharia made a spluttered noise as Todd reached the fireplace. “But you can’t,” she said from her place by the table, “And even if you can, you shouldn’t. Bart obeys only to Dirk.”

Todd put down the basket on the chair he slept on that night, finally taking off his coat and rolling his sleeves up to his elbows. He let the coat fall down next to his hat as he looked at Bartine. “Alright, Bartine. Be a good fire now.” 

“Forget it, I’m a demon,” she replied, raging and growing in the fireplace. Todd was unfazed. “Bart obeys to no one!”

“You’ll do as I say or I’ll pour water over you,” he said simply, then leaned closer to the demon with a smirk playing on his lips. “Or would you rather I told Gently about our agreement?”

Bart stared at him taken aback for a few seconds, Todd not breaking their eye contact as he smiled at her. She sighed. 

“Unbelievable,” she said bitterly. “I never should’ve let this grandpa in. I do one good deed and this is the thanks I get.”

Todd shushed her by placing the pan over her flames, satisfied when she didn’t resist. He was absolutely starving. “That’s a good fire for you.” He threw on the pan a piece of cut bacon from the basket on the chair after pouring olive oil first and began frying it.

“Hey, hey!” Bart called from below the pan. “I’ll burn the bacon.”

Zacharia, or as she was actually called — Farah, watched the situation in commotion close to awe. Bart was doing as the old man said. 

The man spoke to her without turning around, focusing on the cooking in hand. “I’d like some coffee too. Have you got a kettle?”

“Yeah,” Farah answered, still in a state of surprise. She stood up from her chair by the table to take out the kettle from the unwashed dishes. Just as she held it in her hands the door opened and she turned around to face it. After all, Bart opened it outside only to whom she chose.

Inside the Castle walked Dirk, his yellow coat put over his shoulders. He walked slowly inside, closing the door behind him in a swift movement of the hand with tired eyes. 

Farah made her way to the top of the stairs in greeting. “Welcome back, Dirk.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> not much happened in this one because its still setting all the ground for the upcoming chapters, but now its rolling! from here the actualy story is starting haha  
> so y'all met tina the scarecrow, farah and bart. if you need a refrence or whatever to the original design of all the characters you could find it online, i didn't change the castle at all and bart either. only tina is slightly different :)


	3. In Which Todd Witnesses Several Strange Things

The door behind Dirk turned from black to blue at the ticking sound of the lock turning. The window, which just then viewed plain pitch darkness, now had light leaking inside again with the noises of the buzzing village outside.

“You have letters from the King to Sorcerer Icarus and Wizard Gently,” said Farah as Dirk made his way up the stairs. 

Todd turned at the mention of Icarus. Icarus, whom he was sent to find. He caught the sight of the man on the top of the stairs thanking the witch sunnily when he realized he already met that same man, out in the alleyways on his way to Amanda, then soaring above the town and above the rooftops.

Todd felt the fear in his blood as he understood that both of the letters, one sent for Dirk Gently and one for Icarus, were meant for the same man. The man in front of him then. The man he met just two days ago, at what felt like a lifetime ago. 

Of course the man who was supposed to be his saving grace would be _the_ Gently.

Their eyes met, Todd certain his were wide, while the wizard’s — Gently, Icarus,  _ whoever _ — were as green and bright as he remembered them. Todd felt like the wizard was scanning him, recognizing him, but it was over in half a second as Todd averted his eyes and quickly turned his attention back to flipping the bacon. 

He heard the wizard make his way with light and sunny steps, trying with all his might to ignore the heat of the man standing by his side when he reached him.

“Bart, you’re so obedient,” said the wizard with a smile in his voice.

Bart, who had just a moment before been glowing blue, raged in bright red flames under the frying pan. “He bullied me!”

“Not an easy thing to do,” responded the wizard, almost impressed. Todd could feel his gaze wander and land on him as Todd fixated his own on the task in hand, trying not to freeze in his place. The wizard’s voice was a mixture of curiosity and something more. “And who are you?”

Todd could feel the dread in his stomach and tightened his jaw. The dread of what in particular, he didn’t know — of Gently eating his heart, of Gently not opening his own to Todd’s curse, of actually facing Gently while knowing it’s him. That was mixed with anger, blaming the wizard for the wrong that has been done to him.

Todd forced himself to smile politely as he tilted his head to Gently. He knew well how to lie. I came easier than the truth at times. “I’m Brotzman,” he introduced himself, adding an excuse with the first thing that came to mind. “I’m your new cleaning stuff.”

Gently’s smiling face broke into surprise. “Oh! Well, in that case, give me this.” He slid forward, swift like a breeze of wind entering the room, and forced Todd to stride aside. He put his hand over Todd’s on the spatula he used for the bacon, and Todd felt the coldness of his silver rings on his own skin. Gently moved him backwards with his free hand. “Pass me two more slices of bacon and six eggs.”

Todd stood in his place, still startled from the situation when Gently half-turned to face him, the pan in his hand and no longer above the fire as he cued for Todd to add the ingredients.

Todd shook himself and obeyed silently, putting the slices in the pan and giving Gently one egg at a time, watching as the wizard tossed the broken eggshell into Bart’s mouth each at a time. She almost looked like she was smiling. Todd really couldn’t say.

Gently hummed to himself as he finished pouring the eggs on the pan. “And, Brotzman, who hired you to clean for us?”

Gently’s voice was easy, his hair neat and shiny — nearly auburn in the sun. He almost looked like he swayed in his place, like he was floating just slightly above the stone ground. Todd nearly forgot what he was supposed to answer at that.

“I hired myself,” he said. “I’ve never seen such a dirty house.”

Gently mused in semi-agreement at that before turning around. “Farah, could you get us plates?” He took the pan off Bart and walked to the table.

Todd watched as the witch did as Dirk asked, eyebrows furrowing as he frowned. Didn’t she respond to all the customers as Zacharia? It must have been a disguise, just as were Gently’s apparent many names. 

“Come join us,” said Gently from the table, bringing Todd out of his thoughts. “And bring your chair.” 

Todd nodded in response and brought the empty basket in his hand, his other dragging the chair which he slept on along.

“Sit over here,” instructed Gently. He pushed some of the books to make a place for the plates and food on the table, and a few toppled over the edge and onto the ground. He didn’t seem to mind as he sat down, Farah by his side and gesturing for Todd to take place in front of them.

Farah poured them all coffee as Gently handed Todd a plate of bacon and two eggs, placed like a smiling face. Todd leaned back against his coat on the back of the chair, raising an eyebrow at the wizard’s surprising childish nature. That was not what he thought the great Wizard Gently would act like, not at all.

Neither that Gently would turn out to be the stranger which with whom Todd escaped from the Wizard of the Waste's henchpeople.

Todd felt Gently’s gaze bore into him as if he was near to combusting with things he had on the tip of his tongue just waiting to be asked or said, but Todd had no idea what it was he wanted to tell him. Todd had no idea what he would even _ reply _ .

“Pick one,” said Farah on Gently’s side, bringing up in her grip two spoons and a fork, all rusty-looking. She gave him an apologetic look. “Everything else is dirty.”

Todd took the cleanest looking spoon and wiped it with his sleeve. “I’ve really got the work cut out for me.”

Farah cackled at that. Gently sliced the bread in his hands and gave some for Todd and her.

Gently brought his cup of coffee to his mouth, wincing after taking a sip. He flicked his hand over the liquid, turning it into caramel-coloured milky tea. A grin grew on his face. “Much better,” he said to himself, then faced Farah. “Haven’t had breakfast in a long while.”

Todd was still shaken up from sitting in the table with a wizard and a witch, eating breakfast. It was too surreal. 

Farah, who Todd took in as an intimidating and powerful witch, was devouring her breakfast as if to give evidence of how long it has been since the pair have had a proper meal. Gently wasn’t in a much better state.

Todd himself was  _ starving _ . He didn’t have a chance to eat for long, though, before Gently’s eyes snapped up at him all big and curious. 

“So,” he said, a bit of oil from the bacon tainting his skin below his bottom lip, “What’s that in your pocket?”

Todd’s spoon stopped halfway to his mouth, the egg he was about to eat slipping right off and back to the table as Todd frowned. “What?”

Gently nodded, as if encouraging Todd to take out what he apparently brought along. Todd searched in the side pocket of his black pants and found something crumpled by his hip, taking out what turned out to be a red folded paper. 

“I have no idea what this is,” he informed. 

Gently brought his hand out across the table, reaching out to Todd with an open palm. “Let me see.”

Todd brought the piece of paper out Gently’s reach. Just above the middle of the table, where Gently’s spread fingers touched the paper, the red note burst into flames. Todd dropped his hold on the note and let it fall to the wooden table, watching as the fire went out remarkably quick, not setting the table on flames with it. 

The paper was all burnt out, leaving behind it a scorch mark carved in a symbol. It was a drawing, more than a symbol. Of a falling star and a hill and a figure.

Todd was stunned, his fingers tingling with the flames that caught them. The fire wasn’t hot, feeling like silk more than a flame.

“It’s scorched to the table,” Farah said, “Dirk, this is ancient sorcery.”

Both she and Todd looked up to see Gently’s expression, the remaining of dark smog clearing up from their sight. Gently’s eyebrows were knitted in a frown, a fierce look on his face.

“Powerful, too,” said Gently quietly, his eyes like a newly cut stone, or a burning emerald.

“The Wizard of the Waste?” Questioned Farah. 

Todd’s heart jumped into his throat.  _ Yes! _ He remembered the wizard’s words, telling Todd how he wouldn’t be able to tell anyone of the spell and their meeting. He really didn’t want to put that threat into a test.

Gently’s fingers traced the scorched symbol on the table. “‘He who catches a falling star, oh heartless man, your heart shall be mine.’” He spoke like he read out to them, but Todd couldn’t understand where he was reading from. “Well, so much for the table.”

Gently put his palm over the scorched mark, and as he did the symbol began glowing with pink and purple flames. Gently's face wasn’t brooding anymore but entirely focused. 

A dangerous smile lingered on his lips, and Todd was reminded of who the man in front of him really was. Despite his wide smiles and fidgeting limbs and curious eyes, he was the vicious wizard who took people’s hearts out for his own pleasure. He looked powerful just so, close to frightening. 

Then the flicker behind his eyes returned and his menacing look was gone, vanished with the pink flames, and he looked like a man again — and not a sort of monster. 

“It’s gone,” Farah said, sensing the magic in the mark being torn from its surface. 

Gently brought his hand up from the table, revealing that the scorched symbol wasn’t there anymore. “The mark has vanished, but not the spell.” 

Farah took in a bite from the bacon, then put her fork down to the plate. Her eyes found Todd’s. “What did you say your name was, Brotzman?” 

“Todd,” he answered.

Gently smiled on her side. “Todd,” he repeated, letting the name roll off his tongue, trying it out. He made a face, and Todd tried not to be offended. Then Gently’s gaze met his own, his smile returning briefly to his face as he took his plate in his hands and left towards the fireplace.

Did he recognize Todd from the other day in town, or did he not?

“Bart, move the castle 100 kilometres,” Gently instructed, throwing into Bart’s mouth the remaining of his breakfast. He placed the empty plate by the fireplace as the fire munched, making his way towards the stairs leading up. It suddenly made perfect sense to Todd how the place came to be so trashed. 

Todd’s eyes followed Gently’s figure disappearing up the stairs, his voice carrying over his latest request: “And send some hot water to the bath!” 

Bart groaned loudly in response. “Not that too, man!”

Gently spared her no reply. Finally, Todd looked away from the now-empty stairs in his view only to notice Farah eyeing him.

“You don’t work for the Wizard of the Waste, do you?” She asked him after a short beat of silence, suspicion leaking into her voice. 

Blood rushed to Todd’s ears in rage. How could she possible — and to think that she would associate him with that man? Which  _ cursed _ Todd to, what, spite Gently? What was even the fucking message he just delivered Gently?

“Don’t be stupid!” He blurted, all riled up. “The Wizard—” It suddenly felt like his mouth was being zipped, closed against his will. He couldn’t speak, couldn’t let out anything out of his mouth besides helpless angry grunts. He hit the table with his fist, clearly catching Farah by surprise at his emotional reaction. Her face transformed into a frown as she leaned closer, understanding dawning on her expression.

“You’re cursed,” she said in finality. No room for questions.

Todd ran a hand through his hair, winded. He closed his eyes shut, trying to slow the beating of his angered heart before opening his eyes again. “Damn the Wizard of the Waste,” he began bitterly “Wait ‘til I get my hands on him.” 

Above them, the sound of a running shower could be heard. Farah leaned back against her chair, folding her arms over her chest. “And he did it to you because of Dirk, obviously.” She shook her head at that. “Unbelievable.”

“You’re telling me?” Todd asked her, eyebrows raised. “I can’t believe I was thrown into this fucking mess, what do I even have to do with this exes-quarrel?”

Farah snorted at that as if trying to suppress a laugh. Her hand flew to her mouth, covering it up very gracelessly. “Sorry. It’s a little amusing seeing a hundred-year-old man cursing.”

“I’m thirty-three!” Todd argued, then broke into a smile at the sight of Farah’s emerging grin. “Whatever.”

Farah looked at him like she was trying not to smile. She failed, and Todd was strangely comforted by that. 

Todd didn’t know if Farah would tell Gently about his curse, and he was sure that Bart wouldn’t. He decided he would go along with what he told the wizard of his intention, seeing as he could at least get on Gently’s good side in order for him to help Todd. 

Todd really, really hoped Gently had the ability to do so.

Later that day, Todd found himself sweeping the ceiling with a broom in his hands, sleeves rolled up to his elbows and handkerchief around his lower face to shield his nose and mouth from the dust falling down at him. He tried very much to ignore the sight of his wrinkled hands as he worked. 

“These bugs better fuck off before I fuck them off,” Todd muttered to himself at the spiders and insects running over the walls. He kept aggressively cleaning, clouds of dust and dirt all around him. He felt as if each of the bugs on the wall were mocking him. 

Finally, after a long afternoon and many buckets of water having been spilled on the floor and cleaned away, Todd felt satisfied with the new state of the floor. 

Todd paid no attention to Bart in the fireplace as he struggled to carry the heavy rolled carpet from the floor and across the room to lean against a wall. “Old man.”

He turned his head to her after he placed the carpet steadily, eyebrows raised. 

“Small man, I’m going out.” Bart was indeed sitting in basically only burnt coal, nearly nothing left for her to burn. “I’ll die without some fresh wood!”

Todd took the metal shovel from beside the stone fireplace and picked up Bart along with a small piece of wood she clung onto from the ocean of ashes. 

“What are you doing?” She very nearly yelled in a panic. “I’ll fall, I’ll fall and I’ll die!”

Todd put her down in a metal bucket by the fireplace, shaking his head in dismissal. “I’ll sweep the ashes, just wait a minute.” 

He put a bedsheet on the floor by the fireplace and began sweeping the coal and ashes to it, clearing out the fireplace. 

“Oh no, oh no!” Bart called from her bucket. “I’m in danger! I’ll go out!”

As she continued babbling, Todd paid very little attention and put down his broom, turning to knot the sheet containing the ashes to throw to the trash. 

“Hurry up, Todd,” Bart said quietly. 

Todd hummed in response, half-listening as he made his way down the stairs and out of the blue door to throw the dirt outside. After being finished, he pulled down the handkerchief from his face to hang loose against his neck, breathing in some salty air before coming back inside. 

As Todd went up the stairs to the first floor, he was met with a strange sight. Gently stood in front of the empty fireplace, holding in both his hands and dangerously close to his face something blue and shining. At a slow pace, the blue blob turned fiery red and bigger, and Gently placed it on newly placed wood in the fireplace. 

The fire’s eyes opened blearily, and Bart, who then burnt a raging red as if she wasn’t pale blue a moment ago, lacked her usual warmth. Todd felt it even far from her as he stood on the top of the stairs with the empty bedsheet in his hands, the Castle seeming to have been sucked out of any warmth. 

Gently was leaning close to Bart’s flames, hands reaching over to heat himself up. Slowly he straightened his back and turned sideways to face Todd, an almost scolding look on his face.

“Do try not to torture Bart,” Gently told him simply. 

Todd frowned at that, pursing his lips in response. He had no idea what had just happened to Bart and how it had been his own fault, and despite his urge to always talk back at people he held his tongue.

Just as Farah made her way down the stairs, bringing with her a new scent of flowers and newly cut fruits, Gently made his way over to Todd. Todd stood put as Gently strolled his way, watching him closely, waiting for Gently to try something on him. 

The wizard did not. He simply walked down the stairs, avoiding any contact with Todd as he stood in his place.

“Are you going out, Dirk?” Farah asked, tucking her blue shirt into her dark trousers. 

Gently closed the blue door, and turned the lock, the door instantly turning black. Todd could note how the sun of the village entering through the window changed into a different source of light. Gently turned around to Todd again. 

“Todd, I would appreciate it if you made an effort on not getting to carried away,” Gently said. He opened the door, revealing behind it a burning sky, and without another word jumped right out. The door closed behind him before his figure even vanished from sight. 

“What did you do?” Farah asked him, close to a sigh.

Todd turned around to her when Bart spoke before he managed to. 

“He abused me,” she explained to Farah. “If I die, Dirk goes with me.”

Todd chose not to unpack what Bart meant by her sayings and went up to her instead, a scowl on his face. “I was just doing my job,” he excused simply, making his way towards the second staircase when Farah moved right in front of him on the first step, stopping him in his place. 

“No, not the second floor,” Farah said in finality. 

“Listen, Farah,” Todd began, trying to keep calm. “I really want to have this finished without Gently breathing on my neck. Please?”

Farah’s gaze jumped between Todd and Bart, then back to him. She looked at him skeptically before nodding slowly. “You have to really notice what you’re putting where,” she instructed, eyebrows raised and a serious look on her face.

Todd nodded at that, and she cleared his path. He made his way up the stairs in something close to a smile, though it faded into a frown as he stopped in front of the first room in the spider-webbed and dusty second floor. 

“What a freaky house,” he muttered to himself. 

Todd entered through a creaky door to a disgusting looking bathroom, walls covered in fading splashes of what could either be paint or potions. He looked around the room with a scrunched nose, almost debating with himself whether or not he should clean up the room. With a sigh, he opened the window high on the wall to let some fresh air inside the steamy room. As he looked outside the window his breath hitched in his throat, the view from the top of the castle catching him unprepared — the Wastes' mountains spread beneath the Moving Castle, the open sky above them. 

“Amazing!” He breathed out, joyed and confused and happy in such a way he came across for the first time in a long while. “Bart!” He called, louder that time so the demon could hear him from downstairs, “Are you moving the Castle?”

Bart’s voice reached him through the open door, and he knew that even though she aimed at stoic her pride was clear as day. “What a fuss. Of course I am.”

Todd stood out of the room and gazed at Bart from the top of the stairs. “You’re incredible, Bart. Your magic really is some first-class shit!”

Maybe Todd had misjudged her completely, and she wasn’t just as bad as demons were made out to be. As Todd reached the window again, the scenery was moving faster around the Castle. Todd grinned to himself, wondering if it was Bart’s intentional doing.

She really did deserve more credit than he gave her.

Gently had been gone for a few days by then. Todd would sleep on a mattress on the first floor under the staircase, and each morning he and Farah would make breakfast until she was to go out and do her witchy-business she never elaborated on. Not that Todd pried into them, but she also never explained the cause to her red-stained clothing. 

Todd would spend most of his day with either Farah or Bart, otherwise reading into the different books scattered around the Castle and closing them after being overwhelmed by what was written down in them.

Soon enough, he found himself without much to do in hand, resulting in his growing anxiety regarding the question of his curse, and his growing want to return home.

Todd went up to the second floor and, after struggling with the door greatly, managed to open it and enter the square balcony. It wasn’t big and had a metal floor and railing. He didn’t mind one bit the wind in his clothes and hair, leaning against the railing as he watched the view roll by Bart’s movement. All the nature around him was nothing like the town he watched his entire life, and Todd loved going up there to breathe some air. 

By his side, Farah joined him. She put her feet on the lowest level of the railing and held the top level in her hand, leaning back. She gave him a tired smile and he returned her his own smile wordlessly, questions growing in him about where she just came from and what was her mission that day, but he decided to let it be. 

The two of them looked down at the view below them, sharing a companionable silence. Todd enjoyed Farah’s presence greatly, how she was so capable , yet also neurotic and vulnerable just like him. Though definitely more badass. He stayed in a sense of ease of not feeling like he had to take care of her to accept her company. He hardly had that.

It was most likely because of Amanda’s illness when they were younger, and how Todd was quick to adapt to that reality with the belief that in order not to make their parents’ and Amanda’s life even harder than they suddenly became, he was to be as useful as he could be. It grew quite difficult — even after years of Amanda getting more capable and independent — to let go of the habit. 

He knew it had long ago become more than a habit. He chose to ignore it. 

“You really like it up here,” Farah said, a statement more than a question.

Todd nodded at that, agreeing wholeheartedly. “It’s amazing.”

With one hand still holding tight to the top railing, Farah pointed with another towards the large lake they were slowly making their way towards. “That’s Star Lake over there,” she explained. As she turned her head to face Todd, her eyebrows furrowed when she noticed something behind him. 

Farah jumped off the railing to stand on the floor of the balcony, making her way to the corner where the balcony met the body of the Castle, where apparently a long branch was stuck. 

“Something’s stuck,” Farah stated. “Lend me a hand, Todd.”

They pulled the branch out in shared effort until it was fully out, revealing it to be the stick holding Turnip Head up. 

“A scarecrow?” Farah asked in surprise.

“Turnip,” Todd offered, as if it was all Farah needed to know to understand the nature of the creature. “Turnip Head.”

Turnip Head looked just as it did when Todd saw it last, entering Gently’s Moving Castle. 

“You sure like being upside-down,” Todd said to the scarecrow. 

Turnip Head widened its smile before jumping in its place on the balcony. Then it hopped onto the surface of the Moving Castle, twirling in twice as it made its way over the body of the Castle while Farah and Todd watched.

“This thing keeps showing up,” Todd explained to her. “Strange coincidence. It walked me here too.” 

Farah eyed him. “There are no actual coincidences, everything is connected.”

Todd didn’t really know how to respond to that. He gave off a shrug, not knowing anything better to offer. 

“Now I’m really sure you’re no wizard,” Farah said, only half-joking. 

Todd laughed at that. “But you’re wrong, Farah, I’m the cleanest wizard of the land.”

Farah rolled her eyes, and they fell into a comfortable silence again before Todd chose to disturb it at that time.

“Say, Farah, how did you get into all this witchcraft deal?”

Farah looked at him funnily. “I was born into this.”

“No, just — ugh.” Todd struggled to find the words. “I mean, how did you get to live here? With Gently, doing god knows what at god knows where. And… everyone hates witches, even more than wizards. And I can tell you for sure just how  _ despised  _ Gently is.”

Farah scowled at his last remark. “Well, duh,” she spat, almost defensively. “It’s not like people adore things they don’t understand.”

“Sorry,” Todd winced. “I didn’t — mean it like that.”

Farah sighed. Todd was beginning to think he had crossed the line and irritated Farah too much for her to actually open up about that when she spoke up with a hint of insecurity in her voice.

“My father is a wizard, as is my brother,” she started, not meeting Todd’s eyes as he turned his head to look at her. “My father was very powerful, and my mother, being human, dreaded the thought of having me turn that way as well. It’s not that she was afraid of them, but that she would rather have it be we were simple peasants.”

“That turned out great,” Todd tried, aiming at supportive and for once getting it right. 

Farah chuckled, her eyes still fixed on the view below them. “Yeah, right. Then my dad joined the army, and soon after we never saw him anymore. My brother moved to study witchcraft in the Academy, and it was only me left with mom. I was around twelve when my magical tendencies began to rise, and soon after she passed away. So, being left alone, I went around and searched for someplace to stick in, and met Zacharia Webb.”

“That’s how you call yourself,” Todd pointed out. “Outside, with costumes and such.”

“Zacharia was his real name,” Farah said. “He formally went by another, Patrick Spring. And he was so  _ powerful _ . He knew how to move through time, y’know? It was amazing. And now I use his name, because I need one to use.”

Her eyes glistened, and Todd wondered to himself what else Farah had in common with Zacharia Webb other than his name. 

“He taught me a lot. I was pretty good, I think, too. Until his daughter was kidnapped and he went on a search to find her, dying before he managed to rescue her. I was just nineteen. I couldn’t even go to the Academy, even if I was young enough, as I didn’t have any money to pay for it. And by then I met Dirk, and he was so lonely and I was so lost and it was just what both of us needed.”

“How does—” Todd felt embarrassed to ask. Farah looked at him, motioning him to continue. “How does… it work? The magic?”

“Magic is what happens when someone knows how to use the stream of creation by their will,” Farah explained. “It’s all about learning to manipulate the interconnections between all things.”

Todd gaped at her, amazed. “You say that is if it’s the same as growing flowers,” he said.  “Why do you choose another name to go by? Is it like a disguise?”

“Yeah, pretty much,” Farah said. “It’s not standard, but it’s to make it harder for people to find us. That’s why Dirk uses so many, he has too many people going after him.”

“Then why do you?” Todd questioned, studying her expression as she looked away from him again.

“My family,” she answered. 

Todd didn’t know if it was for their own protection, or hers.

The Castle whined to a stop by Star Lake, blowing dark smoke and making noises like sighs.

“Let’s get down there,” Todd offered, putting his hand on Farah’s shoulder before turning from the balcony and back into the Castle. He didn’t want to persist, and he wanted himself to get out and walk around for a bit. 

Farah joined him downstairs on the first floor as he made a picnic basket. He motioned for her to bring over the basket of clean and wet laundry, and the pair left through the green door outside to the grass on the shore of Star Lake. 

Turnip Head greeted them outside, hopping in what could only be translated as excitement.

After setting down the picnic basket Todd and Farah moved to place wires where they would dry the laundry on. Turnip Head helped pull the wire on one end as Farah struggled with the scarecrow’s force, trying to tie it around one of the edges on the Castle.

“Turnip, don’t pull too tight!” Farah called at the scarecrow. 

Turnip Head had the other end knit to its extended hand, and Farah (with a little of Todd’s help) put on the laundry on the wire. 

After she was done, she brought a chair to sit by Todd on the shore of Star Lake as he poured both of them coffee, balancing on his knees two plates with cake on them. 

“Look like she likes doing the wash,” Farah noted, gesturing with her head at Turnip Head.

“‘She’?” Todd asked Farah, bringing her a mug and plate for herself. He raised his eyebrows at the pronoun. “How do you know it’s a ‘she’? Turnip is a scarecrow.”

“I feel it,” Farah said as if it was clarifying enough. At Todd’s skeptic look, she persisted. “Don’t you notice it? It’s like she’s communicating.”

Todd’s eyes wandered to Turnip Head by the drying wire, searching for anything to tell him of what she was apparently telling them. 

“Sure, Farah,” he said, finding nothing. “You’re the witchakookoo.”

Farah snorted. “The  _ what _ ?” 

Todd shook his head, refusing to clarify his and Amanda’s nickname for witches. “Anyway, the clothes will dry in no time. The sun is warm today.”

It was. Todd wasn’t wearing his coat, just his button-up shirt. Farah, too, wore a simple short-sleeved shirt. The wind wasn’t as fierce as it was up in the balcony. 

“She must belong to the demons,” Farah mused. “Turnip. Bart doesn’t seem to like her.”

“You’re right,” Todd said, just because he wanted to mess with Farah a little. “Maybe she’s a demon from the dead. But she led me here to help me.”

Farah shook her head, close to giving up. “There are no such demons, Todd.”

“Ah,” was all he replied to that, eating from the cake happily. 

They sat by Star Lake for something close to two hours, talking of nonsense until their conversation darted to the ongoing war. Of how Farah never went to the actual battlefield, always fighting from the background. Todd understood then — from her bloody clothes, dismissal of questions, anything about it all — without her needing to clarify it being so, that most her “trips” were strategic assassinations. 

She couldn’t go out to the battlefield, as her brother and father were fighting on the other side. She kept her distance from it, acting on the background while Gently went head to head with whatever it was he fought.

“It’s not just a war lead by kingdoms,” Farah explained, “Things have escalated so badly that a schism divided the wizarding community.”

“Is that where Gently goes to?” Todd asked her. “To fight those wizards, through the black door?”

Farah nodded, absent-minded as she gazed upon Star Lake. The sun shimmered against the shining waters like molten gold.

Farah sighed, looking back at Todd. “Dirk’s incredibly foolish, it’s horrible. Despite having me always drill him on what to do, he always half-asses the plan and goes out of his way to roll with whatever he wants.”

“Is he known among other wizards?” Todd asked, curious at that hidden society he had never really come in contact with. 

“With some,” she pondered. “He’s very powerful, and that makes his reputation to precede him. His connection with the stream of creation is stronger than most’s, but he doesn’t always use that cleverly. And he is, clever. Sometimes.”

As their days passed, mainly as a cause of Farah’s talks, Todd was beginning to see Gently as more than what he believed of the man, of the myth. 

The horizon, meeting the edges of Star Lake in the distance, was foggy as if they were looking up from burning cities. It was a contrast to the vibrant blue it was just an hour ago, and Todd tried not to let it worry him, despite their track of the conversation. 

His life was already so goddamn weird. 

Todd was seated closer to the shore of the lake waters, tiny waves reaching his bare feet, his shoes abandoned farther from the water. He sat on the wooden chair, calm and content when Farah reached him, his mind not rushing ahead for once.

A hand was on his shoulder, and he looked to his side where Farah stood. “I’ve put all the laundry in.”

Todd felt bad about having Farah put everything back in the Castle, but the witch had insisted that for one, she was much stronger than Todd’s weary old body; and two, she had magic and Turnip Head to help her. It only made him feel slightly less guilty. 

“Thanks, Farah,” he said genuinely. “We really should be getting back.”

Farah took his chair as he tended to his shoes, cutting him off effortlessly as he tried to argue. Todd huffed, making his way by her side as they walked back to the Castle. 

He was unaware of what was really happening in those darkening smokey skies, their truly pitch-black colour, disturbed only by bursts of flames lighting up everything in their way. 

Unaware of a battered dark-haired winged figure flying past burning men and land, sharp eyes focused and no trace of a sunny smile on his lips. The figure moving like lightning above houses tearing apart, looking around himself as he went on with a pained heart at the new lines of bombs falling onto the ground from different battleships, warships colliding in the skies in colourful blasts only to fall to the ground too. 

One of the planes opened its belly, and instead of dropping more bombs it released out faceless creatures, with only sharp-teethed open mouthes and scissors or black wings for arms, dark legs like birds of prey. 

Dirk Gently dived and flew to their direction, ready for his fight.

Later that night, or perhaps by early morning, Dirk arrived back to the Castle through the black door. Dragging himself up the stairs, he let a sigh escape him, feeling the tension slowly leaving his body after he slumped down on the chair in front of the fireplace.

He was completely worn out as he sat alone on the first floor, hands still taking the form of wings, his whole body covered in the same black feathers. Melting into the seat in exhaustion after god knows how many days, he put up his clawed feet by Bart on the stone fireplace. 

Bart opened her eyes at him, now awakened from her rest. “It stinks,” she commented, making a face at his claws. “You smell of burnt flesh and steel.”

Dirk held his heavy breathes inside as he closed his eyes in concentration, eyebrows furrowing and breath coming out shorter. Slowly his limbs turned from claws and wings to feet and arms, feathers growing back inside to his skin.

Back to resembling a human, Dirk was still dirty and dishevelled, but a great amount less a Black Wing than when he entered the Castle.

“You keep flying and one day you won’t be able to change yourself back,” Bart told him.

It was already becoming harder and harder to shift back, barely bearable. Both knew it, and both left it unsaid in the air between them. 

Bart reached out with her flame-y arms for the cut wood by the fireplace, pulling it into her. “Isn’t it great? Todd set me up with a pile for tonight.”

Dirk appreciated the attempt at small-talk, knowing it wasn’t Bart’s strong suit, though at the moment he was too troubled to accept it. He took his feet off the fireplace and put them on the floor, leaning forward with his elbows resting against his thighs. 

His face was scrunched with pain as he talked. “The fighting is fierce. The country’s ablaze, from the southern coast to the northern borders.”

Everything about him was dimmed and faded. His yellow jacket dull looking, his tired eyes no longer glowing like they did the morning he left. 

“I hate the fire in gunpowder, they have no manners,” Bart snickered. 

Dirk couldn’t help the intrigued smile that reached his lips at Bart’s antics. He grew to find comfort in her presence. Not that each of them had an option. 

“My own kind attacked me tonight,” he said. 

Bart made a strange sound as she crackled around the fire, almost irritated at the meaning of Dirk’s words. “The Wizard of the Waste?”

“No,” Dirk explained. “Other Black Wings masquerading as monsters.”

“They’ll cry later on when they’ll fail to turn into humans,” Bart said. 

“No, they’ll just forget they ever knew how to cry.” Dirk stopped at that, running a hand through his tousled hair. It didn’t seem like the schism was any closer to being repaired, and Dirk was finding it harder and harder to stick with his own rules regarding war. He frowned. “Maybe it’s for the best.”

Bart hummed at that, not agreeing or disagreeing with him. “Say, aren’t you supposed to report to the King yourself?”

Dirk stood up, first sunrays of dawn beginning to enter through the window. Despite it, the room seemed to darken as he rose.

The last thing he wanted was to pay his visit to the filthy King. Shit. 

“Yes, well… I’d rather you send me hot water for the bath.”

“Oh, no, not again,” Bart whined. 

Dirk already made his way away from Bart’s fireplace, stopping before the blue curtain knit to the bottom of the railings on the stairs. He opened it slightly, revealing Todd sleeping on his mattress. He looked peaceful-minded, not a day older than the first time Dirk met him in the alleyway, chased by the Wizard of the Waste’s henchpeople.

Todd’s hair, brown and muffled from sleep, was a contrast to the white sheets. The shadows of early morning and of Dirk standing in the way of the only light source on the first floor added a dramatic air to him as Dirk stood, watching over him for a few moments. 

After getting entirely too lost in thoughts, Dirk stepped back and let the curtain fall closed, making his way upstairs. 

A few minutes later, Todd was shaken awake by the rattling of the water pipes to the bathtub. He shot up from his mattress, old once more and unaware of what he was just moments ago. He ran a wrinkled hand over his face tiredly, confused about the loud noise stirring him awake at what had been a quiet Castle so far. 

Opening his curtain as he sat, Todd was met with the sight of Bart pulling closer more wood. 

“Is that Dirk?” Todd asked her, voice hoarse from sleep. 

“Yeah,” she said, “Wasting my hot water again.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> surprising enough, i've managed to finish this long-ass chapter despite all my tasks!!   
> i hope you'll forgive some of the idioms, english isn't my native language and i'm trying my best in translating what's in my head to english :))  
> the next chapter is rather FULLY STUFFED with brotzley content, so behold


	4. In Which Dirk Expresses His Feelings With Green Slime

That same morning, Todd and Farah went to the market on the dock to buy more food, seeing as now the residents of the Castle ate actual meals. The sun was up high, and the pair were strolling in the streets with salt in the air and coins rattling in their pockets.

“I think Dirk won’t eat breakfast with us today,” Farah told him, her robe and disguise in place.

Todd nodded at that, confirming he was listening to her. A man walked up in their opposite direction across the street, tipping his hat at them.

“Good morning,” he said. 

Farah nodding back at him politely. How many customers did Farah and Dirk have, exactly? Todd wondered since when the wizard and witch sold their magic for profit.

He was glad the Castle reached that village. He liked it a great deal. 

“I’ve never seen the ocean before I started cleaning for you,” Todd told Farah.

“Really?” Farah asked, surprised. 

The two of them entered the busy market, filled with customers and people passing by. It was right on the quay, one side of the road being the different stands while opposite from the ocean water.

Todd made his way to one stand, picking up potatoes in his hands and examining them. After picking a few good ones he paid for them and moved to the fishing stand, Farah making him company as he ran their errands. 

Suddenly, the calm noises of seagulls and chatter were replaced by rushing people and yells. Todd and Farah looked at each other in confused alarm as people around them moved hurriedly to the direction of the dock, where a ship neared from the horizon. 

“The fleet’s come home!” Someone said, rushing forward while gripping his hat to his head.

The woman on their side was distressed. “Is that smoke?”

A man stopped his run in front of the fishing stand by Farah, worry on his face as he spoke to the fisherman. “There’s been another battle, for sure.”

“Really?” Asked the fisherman. He looked at Todd apologetically, already moving from behind his stand and to the direction of the commotion. “I’m sorry sir, I’ll be back later.”

Todd turned to face the tense Farah as people continuously ran around them, one person yelling: “The ship’s on fire!”

Todd looked to the direction of the dock above the heads of the villagers, catching a glimpse of a ship looking long gone. It was bombed and probably entirely ruined, dark smoke coming out of everywhere. He could make out the sailors jumping from the ship into the water, swimming towards the nearby lifeboats that left from the bay. 

“Let’s get a closer look,” Farah said.

Todd didn’t reply, a terrible feeling setting in his stomach. After Farah and he made their way through the pressed bodies, they stopped in their place from an advantage point of view. Even as he paid most of his attention to what was happening in front of him, Todd couldn’t help but overhear the conversation next to them.

“Our best and most advanced battleship,” said the person, “And now look at it.”

Todd’s eyes wandered over the crowd, looking between the ruined ship and flailing sailors and panicked villagers. His eyes landed on one of the Wizard of the Waste’s henchpeople, and his heart dropped to his guts. 

He quickly averted his eyes from the pair of blobs masquerading as people, with normal clothes and large hats and sunglasses covering their faces — or the lack of faces. He stared straight ahead, head locked in a failed attempt to look as normal as possible, breath caught in his throat and anxiety sky-rocketing.

“What is it?” Farah asked before he even opened his mouth, voice barely above a whisper.

Todd swallowed the fear in his throat. He just had to stay fucking calm. “Farah, there are blobs nearby.”

Farah’s eyes roamed the crowd, hidden beneath her hood. He felt her still beside him as she found them. “Don’t move,” she instructed immediately. “They work for the Wizard of the Waste.”

“I’m aware,” Todd replied, fighting not to look at them but still eyeing the two from the side of his eyes. 

The blobs moved slowly, eventually leaving the crowd and Todd’s sight completely. He sighed, letting out all the air he held in his lungs. 

“Don’t people notice those monsters?” Todd asked, almost bitterly. 

Farah opened her mouth to reply, though before she had the opportunity to say anything in response there was a deafeningly loud sound, followed with three blasts hitting the water by the crowd.

Before Todd could comprehend what was happening, what had just failed to hit them and who had caused it, everything turned to chaos. 

Strong wind, caused by the sudden shift on waters along with the frightened crowd moving and falling over each other in an attempt of getting into a safe place, made Farah’s hood drop and magic to wear off her disguise. 

Todd looked up, squinting his eyes as he tried to keep his place despite the rushing bodies and screams around him, trying to find the source of it all. It wasn’t so hard after he actually looked up at the sky.

“Enemy warship,” Farah said. 

It was far bigger than the warship Todd saw when he travelled in the Wastes. The monstrous thing was enormous and began dropping from afar what looked like confetti.

Todd and Farah left the quay, making their way quickly back to the Castle. After getting closer to the blue door, the confetti the warship had dropped had reached them with the wind from the ocean. Todd looked behind him, catching one of the papers in his hands. 

He held it in his hands, though couldn’t read much before Farah took him by the arm and marched forward.

A policeman stood in the street as the two of them continued, pieces of paper falling from the sky like raindrops. “Ignore the flyers! They’re enemy propaganda!”

After reaching and entering the Castle, Todd stopped on the bottom of the stairway to ease his breathing as Farah closed the door behind them. It was goddamn difficult for him to walk so quickly for such a long distance in his old body. 

“Are you okay, Todd?” Farah asked, their shopping basket in her hand. 

Todd leaned against the closed door, wiping his forehead from sweat despite the raging wind outside. “Not really,” he managed.

He slowly moved from the door and made his way up to the first floor, clutching the railing in his hands as he breathed heavily. “Could you please bring me a glass of water?”

“Of course,” Farah said.

He sat down on the wooden chair next to Bart, thinking to himself of coming back to use the cane Turnip Head had given him the first day of his new body.

As Farah poured him a glass and Bart began her complaining about how Dirk bathed for what was longer than a King’s routine, a loud thud came from upstairs and seemed to shake the entire Castle.

Todd could hear a door being slammed open and hitting the nearest wall, followed by waves of smog creeping into the first floor from the staircase, coming out of what could only be the bathroom. 

Out of the bathroom exited Dirk, dripping wet and with only a towel to his waist. He held his head in his clenched hands, gripping at his hair as he honest to god  _ wailed _ . 

Todd stood up from his chair in shock, Farah standing by his side with a glass of water now forgotten. Dirk let go of his hair, holding onto the wooden railing of the stairs for dear life. 

Just then, it dawned on Tood that besides the fact of how remarkably  _ naked  _ Dirk was at the moment — arms looking much stronger than they did under his fancy clothing — his hair was also no longer brown, but… bright red. Tomato-like.

So that was the cause of his fit. Todd nearly flinched at Dirk’s disordered, well, everything, as he spoke up. 

“Todd, what did you possibly do to the bathroom shelves?” Dirk yelled more than asked, and it seemed like the smog was coming out of him rather than the hot water, like he was burning inside out. “Look!”

Dirk ran down the remaining stairs, grabbing strands of hair frantically. “Look at this!” He said, standing right in front of Todd and shoving his head in Todd’s face. “It turned into this  _ hideous _ colour!”

Todd stumbled a few steps back, still a little stunned as Dirk kept getting into his face with his hair. 

Dirk looked at him, eye blown-out green. “You mixed up everything on the shelves and ruined the spells! How could you  _ do _ that?”

That time Todd didn’t take a step back as a cause of loss of words, but because of a spark of alarm igniting in him at Dirk’s harsh tone.

Todd broke into a nervous smile. “I didn’t mix anything up, I just cleaned around.”

Dirk’s expression shifted into something less angry and more defeated, and Todd decided it was best not to ask the wizard who was supposed to be  _ oh so powerful _ why he didn’t just check his potions before applying them.

“Cleaning, always cleaning.” Dirk buried his face in his hands. “I told you not to get too carried away!” As he sunk into the chair at Bart’s side, voice growing quieter, Todd felt a little bad for him. “It’s hopeless. How humiliating.”

Dirk sat there with his head in his hands, the Castle shaking with each movement of his body. Farah shot Todd a wide-eyed look, clearly not knowing how to react to the situation in hand. Todd decided to take it under his control, accepting he had more chance of getting things better with more than a sympathetic and somewhat awkward pat on the head by Farah.

“It’s not so bad,” Todd tried, his comforting words getting caught in his throat at the sight of Dirk’s hair turning from orange to dark purple, then to pitch black between his fingers. 

Todd could try to comfort someone upset, but at  _ that, _ he had no idea what to say or do with himself. What would Amanda say in such a situation? “This new shade is alright in its own way,” he tried. Then winced. Oh, fucking hell.

“I’m done for,” murmured Dirk. “What’s the point of being known if I’m hideous, and not of use? I’m going to be forever alone.”

Todd’s heart went out to the wizard with sympathy, though he couldn’t help the small voice of irritation rising in him at Dirk’s remorse. Dirk Gently was an attractive man with power beyond comprehension, and not only Todd was ordinary looking, but now he was also stuck as a wrinkled ninety-year-old version of himself.

The room turned darker as the walls shook loudly, the Castle trembling around them as Dirk’s shadows grew on the wall into different monstrous shapes. Shadows of limbs and wings and claws came out of everywhere, each corner and surface in the room, moving on the walls and ceiling and floor like lurking predators.

Shadows began climbing the fireplace, cornering Bart. “Stop it, Dirk!” She demanded, panic in her voice. “Cut it out!”

Shadows swirled all around them in the darkened Castle, no light entering their space other than Bart’s flames.

“He’s calling the spirits of darkness,” Farah told Todd, voice serious and eyebrows knit. “He did this the last time he got dumped.”

Of course.

Todd shook himself out of his thoughts. Dirk’s own accusations hit far too close to home, and he couldn’t shake the sudden weight crushing over his chest with his worries regarding his own future — so old and alone.

“How did you help him last time?” Todd asked her. 

“I just waited for him to wear out,” she said, “If I’ll touch him, my magic will get infected like him.”

Todd moved closer, putting his wrinkled hand on Dirk’s sickly pale back, leaning down towards him. “You’re talking nonsense, Dirk,” he said in what he hoped was comforting. “You won’t be alone. And you can always dye your hair.”

He quickly averted his hand from its place on Dirk’s back at the sudden strange sensation, expression changing as he saw the lines of slime connecting his hand to Dirk’s skin. 

He tried not to yelp in disgust, noticing how sweaty Dirk’s body turned. Todd looked at Dirk’s expression, searching for  _ anything _ to help him comprehend the situation, finding only Dirk’s wide eyes staring into space as his body dripped with sickly-green slime.

“Stop it, Dirk.” Todd took a deep breath, fighting and failing to keep his cool. It was too much — his own feeling of helplessness at the situation, Dirk’s ungratefulness regarding his luck and talent, the exhaustion of needing to take care of someone again. Todd was cracking under the pressure. “I’ve had enough of this. I’ve had enough of this place!”

He turned away in his place, speeding past the stunned Farah and down the stairs, opening the green door and leaving past the feet of the Castle. 

Rain poured down on him through the dark grey skies as he walked ahead and down the hill. It was like the skies cried with (or perhaps because of) Dirk. 

Todd’s steps grew slower as the rain soaked his clothes, feeling the unbearable urge to get as far away from everything as he could. Now, far from the Castle as he was and alone, he couldn’t stop the building tears anymore. 

Todd found himself crying — crying over his misfortune and his curse; crying over searching for a solution and failing to find it; crying over how helpless he felt in his own life even before coming across the Wizard of the Waste. 

He couldn’t stop the lump in his throat growing at the thought of how unhappy he was to live in his last days in that ageing body, his last days in the land of the living which were coming closer and closer. 

He missed Amanda, he missed his shop, he missed even the simplicity and how sick he felt to his stomach every time he looked in a mirror without the excuse of his wrinkling skin.

Behind him came the sound of Turnip Head making her way from the Castle. Todd turned slowly to face her hopping his way, holding an open umbrella in her open arm as Farah ran after her. After Tunrip Head reached him, she simply stood next to him, shielding him from the rain with the umbrella in her hand as he wiped the remaining of his tears from his dripping face. 

As Farah came by, unwinded by her sprint to reach Todd, she clutched his sleeve in her grip, looking into his teary eyes gravely. 

“It’s worse than it was last time,” Farah told him. “I need your help.”

The last thing Todd wanted was to help that wizard, but he had to. It was partially his fault. 

Todd took in a deep breath, gathering himself.  _ Okay. _ Okay. he could do this. And even if he couldn’t, he had to.

Inside the Castle, Todd was met with the sight of Dirk’s head resting on the fireplace as his hands lay motionless by his sides, completely engulfed by slime and now slowly flooding the fireplace with Bart in it.

Bart held one of her cut woods above her small form, trying to avoid the green liquid while avoiding the shadows around her. “Todd!” She called as he entered, relieved. “Get over here!” 

Todd felt a little recharged, now fit for handling Dirk. “God, he’s dramatic.” He rolled up his wet sleeves, heaving a sigh. “You can touch anything that isn’t Dirk directly, right, Farah?”

Farah nodded in response, and Todd nodded curtly to himself. 

“Right. Okay. Help me with this.”

The two of them dragged the chair on which Dirk’s limp body sat, taking it away from the fireplace while making sure Farah pushed from the back of the seat and Todd from the front. 

As they reached the staircase, marking with thick slime the course of the road they took Dirk on, Todd put Dirk’s left arm over his shoulders, holding the wizard from his right side while he dragged him up the stairs. It pained him greatly, and he was trying very hard not to slip all the slime, or drop Dirk in the process. 

“Farah, get the hot water running!” He called downstairs to her, and she ran up the stairs from tending to Bart and to open the water pipes into the bathtub. He heard the water running, and soon after Farah left downstairs back to Bart as Todd still struggled to get Dirk past the first half of the staircase.

“C’mon,” he muttered under at Dirk his breath, “You can make it at least a little easier for me.”

Todd looked downstairs to check how many stairs they have passed by then, noticing the white cloth on the second stair, abandoned and drenched in slime. 

White cloth. Realization dawned on Todd.  _ Oh, shit.  _ Dirk’s towel. 

Alright, no more looking down to his feet until they reached the bathtub. No more looking down at all.

After an effort which had most likely took five years off his life, they reached the second floor. Thankfully the bathroom was the first door on the floor and Todd used his and Dirk’s weight to push it open by leaning forward.

A part of Todd was irritated at the fact that he cleaned the bathroom so thoroughly, and now was dirtying it with Dirk’s disgusting body fluids, or whatever that slime was. Another part of him knew it had been the exact reason for the whole fiasco, and noted to himself that the moment Dirk was in better shape they would have a serious talk about hygiene.

After propping Dirk in the steaming bath, Todd sat down on the floor by the tub. Slowly, as Todd watched him from his place leaning against the wall, Dirk stirred back into consciousness. Todd watched him as he stretched his legs, his feet poking out of the bathtub. The water was thick with slime.

At Dirk’s unfocused eyes, Todd lost his very bit of bitterness.

“Are you okay now?” Todd asked. Now that Dirk was clean, he could actually take in the man in his newly-coloured hair. He noticed then a deep cut on Dirk’s left cheek, dangerously close to his eye.

“I don’t know,” Dirk answered, voice slurred and accent thick. “How is Bart?”

“She’s alright now,” Todd reassured. “Farah’s with her.”

The wizard looked absolutely spent. If not just from what has gone down downstairs, then certainly a cause of his long mission on the battlefield. Todd sighed and let his empathy guide him in a very familiar manner, putting his hand in comfort on Dirk’s damp hair and stroking it.

Dirk’s eyes fluttered closed. He looked less pale, beginning to gain back the pinkness of his cheeks and glimmering of his skin. Todd changed the temperature of the water with his free hand. 

“I’m sorry for messing up the spells,” Todd said, because he was, and he wanted to let the wizard know it even when he was bad with words.

“I know,” Dirk said, almost breathing out the words. “I’m sorry for how I reacted, Todd. It’s a stressful time, and I was out of control, and you shouldn’t have seen that." After breathing out a long sigh, he added: "And you shouldn’t have taken care of me, too.”

Todd didn’t know what response he expected, but that wasn’t it. Dirk opened his eyes and looked at Todd, looking so tired and emotional and honest. 

Todd’s heart melted like butter.

He wanted to say,  _ I’m used to taking care of others _ . Another part of him wanted to say,  _ it’s fine, don’t worry _ . A third wanted to say,  _ it’s not like it means anything. _

Todd scoffed instead. “You’re an idiot.”

Dirk’s eyes crinkled as he broke into a laugh, sweet and quiet and easy. Todd realized it was the first time he ever heard Dirk laugh, despite the wizard throwing smiles all over the place. He found himself smiling back despite his frown.

“You’re one hell of an asshole, you know that, right?” Todd asked, chest no longer as heavy as it felt a moment before. Dirk looked at him, amused. “I hate you a little.”

Dirk smiled, face lit up. “Bold words from a ninety-year-old working from me.”

Todd’s smile faded, being reminded of the curse on his existence. His fingers stilled in Dirk’s black strands, unmoving. He clenched his jaw. 

“It’s a strange spell you’re under. I have no idea how to break it.” Dirk’s voice was serious, and his face broke from his concentrated frown into a small smile, almost to himself. “It’s fascinating.”

Todd frowned, taking his hand away, shielding into himself at Dirk’s words. “Fascinating?” He asked, failing to mask the distrust in his voice. 

Dirk wavered at that, sitting up from laying in the tub, leaning both his arms over the edge of the tub as he faced Todd. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to offend you.” He closed his eyes tightly for a moment before opening them. “Shit. I’m sorry. It came out wrong. But, really, everything about you is… intriguing.”

Todd looked away from Dirk, folding his arms over his chest defensively. “Yeah, well, thank the Wizard of the Waste for that.”

Dirk didn’t reply. Todd could almost hear him thinking in front of him, feeling the green eyes bore into him as he collected himself. The only noise in the Castle was Farah’s cleaning downstairs, the muffled sounds of the Castle moving, and their breaths. Todd figured he really needed to change into clean, dry clothes.

Just as he was to excuse himself, Dirk spoke up, “Then tell me about you.”

Todd looked at him, the two fo them at eye-level as Dirk laid his chin over his hands. “What?”

“Tell me about your life,” the wizard encouraged. 

Todd frowned in reply. “What has that got to do with any of this?”

Dirk shrugged. “Let me be interested in you,” he said. “I’m sure it’s not only your curse that I’m drawn after.”

_ Drawn after.  _ Todd swallowed, not flinching from Dirk’s inviting eyes  — genuine and warm and glittering.

“My little sister, Amanda — you would’ve loved her.”

“How old is she?” Dirk asked him, head tilted a little to the left. 

“Twenty-six,” Todd answered, unsure of why that was vital information to his barely one-sentence-long story. 

Dirk nodded along. “And your age gap is…”

Oh, Todd caught what he was getting at. “Seven years.”

So Dirk knew about his curse, and about how it chained him. That was a start. 

Dirk hummed for a moment, then raised his chin from his hands. A dark strand of hair fell on his forehead, but he didn’t seem to notice. “I’d like to see you thirty-three.”

“You did,” Todd said simply, not knowing what else to say.

Apparently, he didn’t need to. “Again, I meant.”

Todd wanted to ask the wizard how he recognized him. Todd wanted to ask him if he knew what the Wizard of the Waste was to do to him, or if he knew how to help him. 

Todd wanted to ask him what had led him back to Dirk, but that he already knew. As bizarre as it seemed to him.

“So, tell me about Amanda,” Dirk said, eyebrows raised as he was ready to listen if Todd was willing to tell.

Todd was still a little dazed. “Yeah. Yeah, Amanda. She’s a tough one, way more than I am.”

Dirk made a strange sound at that, and Todd raised his eyes in an amused question. Dirk didn’t say anything more, and so Todd continued.

“She’s the best, really.”

Todd knocked on the door at the end of the hallway with his left hand, his right holding a mug.

It was late afternoon, and Todd had just finished with Farah’s great help tending to the first floor. She was now out on the balcony with Turnip Head, enjoying the warm sun.

When no response came, Todd knocked again on the door. “I’m coming in.”

He opened the door and entered Dirk’s room for the first time, having not even cleaned it while Dirk was out for the week. Dirk was lying awake on a plain bed, barely different than Todd’s own mattress on the floor. It was in the middle of the room, a vivid contrast to the overflowing and colourful stuff in the bedroom.

Standing by Dirk’s bed, Todd motioned at him with the mug. “Here’s hot milk,” he said. “Drink it up.”

Dirk, who lay on his back, let his eyes flutter closed gently, his black hair muffled from his restless sleep. He wore a plain white shirt, no jewelry at all, looking like the warmest thing Todd could come across. 

Dirk hummed in a quiet response, his head slipping a bit to the left on his pillow. Todd sighed. 

“I’ll leave it here.” He placed the mug on the strange drawer by the bed, purple coloured and covered in different bottles and tiny boxes with powders. “Drink it while it’s hot, alright?”

Besides Todd’s words, the only other noise in the room was caused by the gently ticking strange clocks and metronomes scattered all over the walls and floor, never stopping their oddly calming melody. 

There were different books open everywhere, on shelves and the floor and on the desk. Dirk had jewels scattered on different surfaces, pendants and ornaments and gemstones alike, glimmering despite the lack of sunlight.

Todd turned to walk out of the bedroom, and just as his hand twisted the doorknob Dirk stirred in his bed. 

“You don’t need to look after me.”

His voice was drowning in what could easily be made out as shame. Todd didn’t move from his place. “I’m not,” he said in response, even though he was. “And even if I did, it’s not because I feel like I have to. I want to.”

As Todd turned back to face him, Dirk wasn’t meeting Todd’s eyes. He understood perfectly what was going on: Dirk, with a clear head, was feeling guilt over what had happened earlier that day and had no idea how to act upon it. 

“Do you want me to leave?” Todd asked. 

Dirk didn’t respond and after a moment or so of contemplating Todd walked back towards him, pulling a chair from the desk by the bed to sit by Dirk. 

Todd waited for Dirk to speak up, and let his gaze go on around the room. His eyes fell on a mirror on the opposite wall, and Todd watched the reflection of himself seated by Dirk’s bed. He looked refreshed, bags under his eyes gone, and despite his white hair and wrinkled skin he looked healthy. His eyes, still blue as ever. They were the only thing he liked about himself, now that he had pretty much nothing left. 

Still, they were far too big to his liking.

Todd didn’t tear his gaze from his reflection just as quickly as he did not so long ago, leaving his home in search of Icarus. Whom he was sitting by just then.

“Try the milk, Drik,” Todd said. 

Dirk shook his head slowly, mouth pursed in a thin line. 

Todd sighed quietly. From looking back at Dirk his eyes darted around the room again, admiring the buzzing and shimmering room he sat in, Dirk looking so calm inside it. 

“The Wizard of the Waste is searching for me,” Dirk said finally, breaking the silence with a hoarse voice.

Todd frowned at his words. “You’re right. I saw his minions down at the dock.”

It felt like weeks ago, and it had happened that morning.

Dirk blinked numerously in his direction, and Todd waited for him to speak up again. He did only after he tore his eyes, looking away from Todd entirely. “The truth is, I’m a coward,” he admitted in a blurt. “All this rubbish is just sorcery to keep him away. I’m scared to death.”

“Why is he after you like this?” Todd asked, aiming at gentle.

“I was interested in him, and we teamed up together. He was the first friend I’ve ever had. That’s until, well, until he manipulated me and I left.”

“That rough,” Todd offered helpfully. God, why did Dirk even ask him to stay?

Dirk huffed at that. “Yeah, it was.”

“How’s the fighting holding? I get from Farah you’re the muscle,” he said, eyebrows raised in a teasing manner.

“Hmm, yeah? Impressive, isn’t it?” Dirk made a proud grin, wiggling his shoulders a little in his place on the bed.

Todd tried very hard to swallow the laughter bubbling in him. He half succeeded. “Not really.”

Dirk scowled at that, and Todd wondered if Dirk was actually offended by that. He would’ve believed it.

“It’s going alright, in a matter of fact,” Dirk said, his expression turning serious slowly. Like melted wax. “God. I really  — I really do hate it up there. Jesus.” Dirk brought his hands up to his face, rubbing his palm over his  eyes. “Yeah, no. But I have to.”

“Why?” Todd asked.

“I don’t really have any choice with this,” Dirk answered defeatedly. “But I  _ hate _ it so much. Hate what I need to do. Hate how it makes me feel, hate knowing it is a useless fight in a useless war. You know, fighting for a reasonable enough cause, I could handle it. Probably. I’m pretty sure. But not what’s going on now. See this?” Dirk pointed to the wall above his head, with darts fixed on a formal piece of paper instead of a target. “The oath I took at the Sorcery Academy. To stand by the King no matter what. And he ordered me to report to him, both as Icarus and as Gently. Fuck.”

Todd didn’t even know what to say. “How many names  _ do _ you use, Dirk?”

Dirk clenched and unclenched his hands, looking at his fingers as he did. “Enough to guarantee my freedom.”

Todd frowned for a moment. Then, a thought came to mind, and a grin grew on his face.

“Say, Dirk, why not just visit the King?” He asked, bringing Dirk’s attention back at Todd from his brooding. 

Dirk’s eyes jumped to Todd in alarm, an expression of clear shock worn over his face. “ _ What _ now? Have you not paid attention in the last five minutes?”

Todd shook his head, dismissing Dirk’s bewilderment. “Just say it to his face. ‘Stop this stupid war, I refuse to help you’.”

Dirk sighed, loud and miserable. “You don’t know what they’re like, Todd.”

Todd didn’t reply to Dirk’s sour pout. He was on the brink of rolling his eyes at the wizard when suddenly Dirk rose out of bed, and it was like a gush of fresh wind entered the room and swept him up. “I know!” He exclaimed, hair winded and eyes bright and smile big. “You’ll go in my place, Todd!”

Todd looked at him like he just grew a second head. “How would that work, exactly, when the King clearly knows who you are?”

Dirk didn’t faze from his skepticism. He leaned closer to Todd, nearly bubbling with his new idea. “Pretend you’re Gently’s father, of course! Just tell him your son is an idle good-for-nothing bloke.” He grinned brightly. “Maybe Sir Priest will even give up on me.”

“Sir Priest?” Todd asked, lost at the sudden new person added to the equation.

“He’s this old dude, don’t worry,” Dirk dismissed easily. “He’s got nothing on you.”

Todd doubted that greatly, as said _Sir_ — fucking nobility, was he? — was apparently a part of the deal too. “I don’t believe you one bit, Dirk. Who is he? Tell me he’s not another wizard.”

“Whatever keeps you sane,” Dirk replied, which was possibly the worst answer he could’ve given to Todd. 

“I’m not on board with this plan,” Todd announced. “Not at all.”

Dirk gave him a devilish smile. Todd was  _ not  _ going to crack. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> guys!!! todd and dirk having an actual conversation? todd no longer flinching at his reflection (even if he isn't fully comfortable with what he sees)?? farah and turnip-head aka tina the crackhead bonding through farah's magical understandings of tina??? oh damn right  
> let me know what y'all think of this!! :)


	5. In Which Todd Blackens Dirk's Name

A few days later, Todd had actually (reluctantly) agreed to Dirk’s terrible plan. There really was no better solution. Every other option was just  _ so bad _ it was almost amazing. 

After stressing himself for about 32 hours, Todd found himself leaving the Castle through the village by the bay with Farah and Dirk on his side, getting on a train and roaming the streets of a small city nearby. Dirk and Farah wore robes, Dirk a green and Farah a blue, both of them magically looking as old as Todd felt.

It was somewhat amusing. The three elders walking around in an effort to ease Todd from his inevitable task. He wanted to do it, even if he wished he had even a little bit more information on what exactly was to happen.

Dirk was still recovering from all that happened, and even though he was coming back to his old self, he was still a little weak. He seemed to enjoy their trip very much, while Farah was mainly cautiously looking behind their shoulders in search of bad news.

They wandered about, looking for anything to occupy them as they spent the morning. Todd had motioned for the flower shop a few feet ahead eventually. “Let’s check this out.”

Dirk looked at him, flabbergasted. “You like flowers?”

Todd tried not to sound offended by the entirely shocked tone, and didn’t even make an effort in defending his honour by kicking Dirk in his legs. “They're just flowers. Shut up.”

The three of them went inside, the tiny bell on top of the door ringing quietly as they entered. The shop was quite large and filled with long rows of flowers sorted by colours, the warm sun entering the place through the huge window which played like a wall to the street’s direction. 

Todd smiled to himself as he strolled past the green and yellow rows to the orange, walking around as Farah wandered her own way and Dirk treaded around him. 

Dirk flickered at a marigold, fingers ghosting over the golden petals. Todd never liked those  — they represented the selfish desires of the rich. “Look,” he said. The marigold grew taller at Dirk’s touch, more petals blossoming out of it brightly in front of their eyes. 

“I thought we were supposed to keep ourselves on the low,” Todd said, but even so let his hands touch the plant. It almost glowed beneath his touch.

“It’s worth it, though,” Dirk shrugged. “Now it’s better! Vibrant. Even if weirder.”

“Doesn’t your magic just make the whole  _ universe _ weirder?” Todd asked, raising his eyebrows tauntingly.

Dirk frowned at him, his now-wrinkled face all scrunched up. “The universe is already weird, Todd.”

It was odd, seeing Dirk in his disguise just so. How old he looked, how the robe cast a shadow over his features just like Farah’s hood did. Todd could still see the gleam of Dirk’s shimmering eyes, mirroring the flower at his hand.

Todd frowned at him, his hand dropping from the magical flower. “You really don’t have any idea what you’re doing half of the time, do you?”

“No, not ever. It’s really quite relaxing.” Dirk’s head bobbed forward as he spotted something new. He looked back at Todd, pointing at a tulip further on. “How do you like this one? It’s very… orange, isn’t it?”

Todd didn’t really know how to react to Dirk’s answer. He figured he wasn’t all that surprised. “It is orange.” He moved past Dirk to the next flowerbed. “Amanda used to know so many flower meanings before she went through her punk phase.”

“Punk phase?” Dirk asked, and Todd made the mistake of turning his head to look at his cheeky smile. “Did you go through one, too?”

Todd coughed as he looked away. “Look, here are some more flowers,” he replied simply, already walking away from the wizard. “Let’s check them out.”

Dirk made a strangled sound as Todd made his way towards Farah, who gave him an uninterested look in response. The three of them later, leaving the flower shop rather empty-handedly, moved through a nearby shopping street.

On each side of the road were different sorts of shops, and despite Todd’s strong distaste to shopping, he found the place nice. The street was clean and nearly empty of people besides them. 

They walked idly and munched on the nuts they got at a nearby stand when Todd felt the tension slowly leave his shoulders. They weren’t doing anything in particular, but the mere act of doing nothing and not discussing all that was left to be done or said left Todd in an odd sense of ease rather than trouble. 

Dirk halted to a stop in front of a clothing shop, his expression breaking into a triumphant grin. He quickly promised Todd and Farah he would find them later before walking inside the shop, not providing any more information. Farah just nodded at that and the two of them wandered on.

“How’s Turnip doing?” Todd asked her.

Farah flashed a brief smile. “She’s good, I think. She’s not that bad of a company, Bart is really exaggerating.”

There were times Todd thoughts to himself how easier his life would’ve been if he had what Farah and Dirk had. At others, he couldn’t have been more grateful not to be on that rocking boat along with them. “Obviously you would have never gotten tired of talking to yourself for hours.”

Farah elbowed him in the ribs. “She talks back!”

“In your head,” Todd remarked.

Farah made a face at him, folding her arms over her chest. “Laugh all you want, even that scarecrow knows you’re a dumbass. She says that almost daily.” Farah flashed him a grin. “Even she understands what’s going on. Somewhat.”

“I wonder if it’s because her head is full of turnips,” he offered. “Or maybe she’s just a crackheaded demon.”

“I’m not so sure she  _ is _ a demon anymore,” Farah said.

They passed by a music store, and Todd found himself slowing to a stop by the window. He looked inside, eyes catching on a shiny guitar on a stand.

The shop was closed and the sunlight from the street bounced on the guitar. Todd’s fingers itched with the instinct of reaching out to pick it up.

He could half-remember Amanda and him jamming on the afternoons, himself on the guitar and her on the drums. Burning the hours away, not letting anything get to them when they did. 

God, he missed playing. And he missed Amanda. 

“Do you know how to play?” Farah asked him, standing on his side in front of the window. 

“Yeah,” Todd said, almost breathing out the word. “I had an electric guitar back home. God, it feels like ages ago.”

“We could go someday and bring it. If this curse doesn’t get sorted out.” 

Todd looked at Farah, not knowing what to say. At that rate, he himself didn’t even know if he was going to go back home. It was like a weight was lifted from his shoulders and came crashing back down.

“We should probably find Dirk,” Farah said, breaking the short silence that grew between them. She looked sorry. She looked like she had no idea what to say. “He’s still a menace, even if a friendly and tired one at the moment.”

Todd appreciated her effort. “Definitely an irritating one,” he added.

As if on cue, Farah motioned with her finger on the direction they came from, and Todd turned his head to where Farah was looking only to see the elderly Dirk rushing towards them with something new in hand, a deep blue colour. 

“There you guys are,” he said as he reached them, and Todd’s eyes were fixed on the tailored coat slung over his arm. Dirk was beaming. “I’m done!”

Farah raised her eyebrows at the coat. “And what’s  _ that _ ? Don’t you have enough fancy colourful clothes?”

Dirk rolled his eyes. “No, Farah, and this is for Todd.”

Todd’s eyes widened in surprise. “ _ What _ ?” 

“Here,” Dirk said, putting it in Todd’s hands with a smile. “It’ll go well with your eyes.”

Todd held it in his hands, viewing it in all its length in front of him. It was long, the fabric fancy and everything about it in contrast to Todd’s current old and worn black coat. 

And better yet, it seemed to be Todd’s exact size. 

How the fuck? It was a goddamn tailored coat, those weren’t just made casually. 

Todd really wanted to tell Dirk he shouldn’t have bought something so expensive for him. He also really wanted to call him a stupid dick. He was actually really overwhelmed.

“What  — Dirk, how do you even know my size?” He asked, brows furrowed in confusion and surprise. “My  _ exact _ size?”

Dirk shrugged in response. “I don’t know. I just know.”

“God,” Todd could only say. He sighed. “Well, it’s amazing. Thank you, even though you really shouldn’t have. Seriously.”

“It’s too late for that, isn’t it?” Dirk asked him easily.

Todd frowned at him, and then it was sorted. They made their way to the now-crowded train on their journey back to the Castle. By the time they returned to the village it was close to noon, and Todd couldn’t really wait much longer for his lunch. He sort of slipped out of Dirk and Farah’s conversation, coming back to reality when Priest was mentioned.

Priest.  _ Sir  _ Priest. Another fucking wizard Todd was going to meet because he found himself in the Wizard of the Waste’s mess, and later on in the caring-about-Farah-and-Dirk-way-too-much mess. What was it about him that he had such trouble trusting new people, but the moment he finally did  — he couldn’t let go of it?

“Priest?” Todd propped, trying to get back into the conversation. 

“Who taught Dirk after he left the Academy,” Farah offered helpfully. “He wanted Dirk to work for him but Dirk didn’t accept his offer.”

“So he paid people to find me,” Dirk added in a manner that was far too casual. “They didn’t.”

“And do what? Kill you?” Todd asked. 

Dirk shrugged. “Basically.”

The salt was thick in the windy air. “How much?” Todd asked.

Farah pondered it for a moment. “A lot.”

“Guess it wasn’t enough,” Dirk said, and Todd wasn’t sure if he was being blunt or bitter. 

Todd bumped their shoulders together, trying to reassure him. He wasn’t sure what of. “I’d do it for free.”

Dirk smiled, holding back a cackle. “No, you wouldn’t.”

“Hmm,” Todd mused, raising his eyebrows. “Wouldn’t I?”

Dirk shook his head, letting his eyes fall from Todd to the road ahead of them. It wasn’t long until they would take a left turn and walk up the main street to the Castle’s blue door. 

After a short silence, Dirk spoke up gain. “Well, it was the only thing he left unfinished. I suppose he has all he needs now.”

“Do you?” Asked Todd, unable to stop himself. 

Dirk looked at him, frowning slightly. “Do I what?”

“Have everything you need,” Todd explained.

Dirk’s eyes did a funny thing. He squinted for a moment before something flashed behind them. Then he looked away entirely, his head low and his fingers fidgeting by his legs as he walked. “Almost.”

On the first floor, Todd wore his black coat the second time that day. He took the walking cane Turnip had given him on the day he met her from Farah’s reached hand, giving her a nervous smile before he walked to the stairs leading to the door. 

On the top of the stairs, Todd turned to face Farah and Dirk who stood by Bart’s fireplace. They took off their disguises and Farah was dressed as practical as ever, with dark trousers and a fitting shirt tucked into them that didn’t affect her movement in case of a fight. Dirk stood there with a blanket around his shoulders, looking like he’d collapse with one blow. Todd knew better than that, and still, his stomach turned. 

“This is bad,” he said. “This isn’t gonna work. It’s a bad idea.”

“Nonsense.” Dirk shook his head. “This is a wonderful idea and it’ll turn out amazingly.” He looked at Todd for a moment or two, then scowled. “You’re really wearing that coat? After I got you the nice blue one?”

Todd couldn’t help the cackle escaping his lips. “This one draws less attention,” he explained in a shrug.

“See you later, Todd,” Farah said, eyes dark brown and worried. “You better come back in one piece.”

“I’ll try,” he muttered in response, turning away from them to walk down the staircase. Todd turned the lock on the door and it changed to red, but he didn’t push it open. In a moment’s notice, Dirk was suddenly by his side, hopping to stand by him silently.

Without looking at Todd, Dirk took the cane from his grip and cradled his hand. Todd looked down from Dirk’s gentle expression to their joined hands, being reminded of how they felt in Todd’s when they escaped from the Wizard of the Waste’s blobs on the day they met  — cold, long fingers, soft to the touch. He didn’t even know what he was getting into back then.

Dirk took off the ring on his fourth finger. It was silver with a red gemstone, and Dirk slid it on Todd’s hand. Then he let go of Todd’s hand and Todd took the cane, still looking at the ring on his hand. The metal was cold to the touch.

“This charm assures your safe return,” Dirk said.

Todd grew to notice Dirk’s very little thought about personal space. When he was around Todd, he was  _ all around  _ Todd, like he was just that same moment. Warm and inviting, his smell enveloping Todd, his voice in his ear. 

Todd looked up to face him, and indeed Dirk was so very close. It didn’t stop the doubt from stirring in him, no matter how much he wanted it to.

“Don’t worry about Priest,” Dirk said reassuringly, but Todd felt like Dirk said it more to himself than to Todd. “You’ll be fine,  _ Mr. Cjelli. _ ”

That was Dirk’s birthname — Svlad Cjelli. Those who knew him as Icarus most likely knew his birthname too, but Dirk didn’t use it at all anymore. It was even a stranger name than ‘Dirk Gently’ was in Todd’s opinion.

Dirk smiled at him despite his clouded eyes, and Todd saw it written all over him how worried he actually was. “I’ll watch over you in disguise.”

Now Todd felt even more anxious. Dirk didn’t give him an opportunity to respond and slid his hand to open the door for him. “Now off you go.” 

Todd stepped outside with one last glance at Farah, leaving the Castle with a frown. After the door closed behind him, he was alone. The streets weren’t crowded, and the afternoon sun was high in the middle of the sky.

Todd looked down on his hand gripping at the walking cane, watching the gemstone on the ring gleam as the sun-rays hit it. 

“If this actually works then I’m not a ninety year old,” Todd muttered under his breath. 

He shook himself, letting out a sigh and tightening his grip on the cane. Then, he began his way to the Palace. It wasn’t hard getting there with all the directing signs, and even without them, the Palace could be seen from every point of view across the city.

The city was rich in colours of buildings upper-class people’s fancy clothes, full of clean streets and clean faces. As Todd walked he felt relieved at the little glances he was spared, remaining mainly invisible at that. 

He tried to enjoy his stroll and keep his mind off all the things that could turn out bad. He watched a black crow flying close by, for a moment asking himself if it was Dirk keeping an eye for him. When a few more appeared he figured it wasn’t. 

Kingsbury was a beautiful city, Todd decided. Even if the people living there had no sense of what was going on in the rest of the land or how the other citizens were holding up, it was beautiful. Just not because of the people. 

As he went by the main square he passed the King’s giant statue, he saw a flock of doves sitting on it and eating seeds from people’s reached hands. 

Even though Todd was pretty sure Dirk would disguise himself as a bird of a sort — with his flying and hovering and all that — he was also  _ certain _ Dirk wasn’t a fellow dove. It wasn’t nearly as dramatic enough for him.

Todd smiled to himself at that, accepting his earlier realization that Dirk was, in fact, thick as shit. Before he ever met Dirk he thought of him as some dangerous zen master and magical being, but after getting to actually know him it was revealed that Dirk was more of a clueless idiot than whatever was being said about him all over the land. 

He  _ was _ powerful, Todd knew that. In his magic field. He knew so many things about the nature of the universe and how to manipulate it with his spells in ways Todd never thought even the best wizards were capable of. But in any other aspect, he had just his basic intelligence and had seen absolutely no reason to develop it. 

Like the dinner they ate the night before, which Farah and Dirk prepared, and when Todd asked what they were eating Dirk had looked down at the plate for about twenty seconds before going, “The brown meat one. The one with horns.”

Todd could only look at him with furrowed eyebrows and slowly ask if it was beef, to which Dirk responded, “Yes, a beef.”

The Palace was still far away. Todd was perhaps half the way there when a fat little corgi joined him. It just walked by his side, its little paws not struggling to keep up with the pace. The dog made no eye-contact with him, but there was really no reason for a dog to walk so detrimentally next to Todd on his way to the Palace. Unless it wasn’t a real dog. 

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” Todd said quietly. 

At that the corgi looked up as if it heard him, looking at Todd for a very long moment. Todd looked at it back with wide eyes, waiting for a sign,  _ anything _ — just so he’d know it really was Dirk walking with him. 

The corgi sneezed loudly, and Todd felt his shoulders relax a bit. Not that Dirk could help him at all, but at least he wasn’t alone. “Of all things. Unbelievable,” he muttered with a small smile.

The sound of wheels hitting the stone beneath him reached Todd and fairly quick a black carriage reached him, the black horses leading it being controlled by what were two unmistakenly Wizard of the Waste’s henchpeople dressed up elegantly with large hats to cover their lack of faces. Between the carriage and Todd was only corgi-Dirk. 

The carriage slowed down the moment it reached Todd, and the black curtain covering the window from the inside was opened to reveal no other than the smug Wizard of the Waste. 

“How nice to see you again,” the Wizard of the Waste said with a grin. “The little hatter, right?”

Todd gritted his teeth, looking away from the taunting wizard. “The Wizard of the Waste.” 

“Thank you so much for delivering my note to Icarus,” he said. Todd eyed the corgi, who gave him a silent look in response. “How is he doing? Still going mad with boredom?”

“Thanks to you, I’ve become cleaning staff,” Todd said instead of answering, bitterness escaping into his words despite not wanting to let that wizard know the truth.

The Wizard of the Waste laughed at that. “You know it’s nothing personal. What brings you to see the King?”

“Job hunting,” Todd answered without missing a beat. “I’m sick of working for Icarus. And you?”

“The King invited me,” the wizard replied with pride. “It seems like that idiot, Priest, finally needs my help.”

It felt to Todd like all wizards held themselves like open books. He wondered if it was because while they were still being so honest, no one could use that against them but themselves. 

Todd’s head was buzzing with anger and frustration at having the Wizard of the Waste being so close to him, while unable to do anything. He was on his way to meet the King, and even if he hadn’t been  — the damn wizard was surrounded by his minions. Todd would’ve never stood a chance against him. Maybe he could get out of hitting that wizard with his cane. 

Still, it seemed Todd had no other option but the Wizard of the Waste.

“Why don’t you break the spell you put on me?” He asked him, failing to keep his resentment hidden.

“That’s impossible,” said the wizard, and Todd’s head shot back to look at him in shock. “My specialty is in casting spells, not reversing them.”

Todd wasn’t sure if he was more angered or utterly shocked. “Are you _ serious _ ?” 

The Wizard of the Waste flashed him a smile. “See you later, hatter.” 

Without another word, the curtain closed swiftly and the henchpeople whipped the horses and the carriage ran ahead. 

Todd sped up as he raised his cane from the grown, waving it in the air in boiling anger. “Hey, wait a minute!” Come back here!” He groaned in frustration, giving corgi-Dirk a wide look. “I wish I hit him with the cane when I had the chance. Fuck.”

He let out a heated breath, collecting himself again. Soon, Todd and corgi-Dirk entered the front gate to the Palace, making their way in a huge yard with royal guards on each side of the road to what looked like a thousand stone stairs heading to the entrance of the Castle.

When they reached the seemingly infinite staircase the Wizard of the Waste’s carriage was already empty, and the wizard was struggling on his way up alone. Todd took a deep breath and braced himself, leaning on his cane as he began his climb. The staircase was wide and on each side of it stood guards who stared ahead and made no interaction with either Todd or the wizard.

After Todd had already topped the wizard he suddenly noticed corgi-Dirk wasn’t climbing beside him. He looked back down and saw the dog standing silently on the bottom of the stairs, and without sparing another look at the wheezing wizard he ran back down.

After reaching the bottom of the stairs he rolled his sleeves and picked corgi-Dirk up in his hands without a word, holding his cane in his grip without using it anymore as he began walking up the stairs again. That time he went up slower, being dragged by the new weight in his hands.

“How are you so goddamn heavy?” He asked under his heavy breath, to which corgi-Dirk barked in response.

Todd let out a breathy laugh, and with sore limbs, he finally managed to pass the Wizard of the Waste again. Todd looked behind his shoulder at the wizard as he walked a few steps ahead of him. He was in a horrible state  — his skin was more yellow than it should be, looking like it was made of wax that was beginning to heat up. 

“You — Hey — Wait!”

Todd turned his head back again at the Wizard of the Waste, keeping up his pace. “What is it?” He asked, talking through gritted teeth in the effort. “Suddenly remembered… how to break my spell?”

“I told you…” The wizard began, sighing as he did. “I don’t know how.”

“You better learn then,” Todd replied, turning forwards from the winded wizard.

Even with his back turned away and climbing onwards, Todd didn’t miss the wizard’s helpless words. “Where does he get all that energy?”

Todd stopped after a few pained steps, putting corgi-Dirk down on the step ahead of them. He put his hands on his thighs, taking in panted breathes as he closed his eyes. After somewhat catching his breath, Todd turned back to look on the Wizard of the Waste, dragging on far behind him. Todd frowned  — t hey still had a long way to go.

“Why don’t you just call it a day?” Todd asked, teasing gone from his voice. “You can’t make it up here.”

The wizard looked up at Todd,  sweating like crazy, nothing like the powerful man Todd met the day he was cursed by him. He looked pitiful. “It’s been fifty years since they drove me out of here…” He began, words slurred. “I’ve been longing for this day… ever since.”

Todd wasn’t sure if the wizard was sweating or crying. It was as if all the magic that kept him young and handsome was being stripped away, and what Todd was left seeing was a melting version of that man.

“Good luck, then. I’m still not nice enough to help you out.” He turned from the wizard to corgi-Dirk, bringing out his arms to the dog to hop on. “Come, Dirk.”

“You prick,” the Wizard of the Waste called after him. “Next time I’ll turn you feeble, too.”

Stair by stair, step by step, Todd managed to reach the top of the stairs. He dropped the dog carelessly and he leaned his entire body weight on his walking cane, trying to regain his composure and not even looking around where he reached — the front of the Palace. 

After long deep breathes he managed to open his eyes again, mouth falling open at the red and golden walls of the Palace and the decoration he could make out even from standing on the top of the stairs. 

Todd turned back to the direction he just came from, his eyes catching the wizard on the stairs. 

“Come with me, sir.”

Todd turned his head, being met with a stern-looking royal guard. He motioned with his gloved hand to the Palace behind Todd, but Todd didn’t move.

“You should help him get up here,” Todd said, slightly winded. He motioned with his own hand at the wizard. 

The guard shook his head simply at Todd’s request. “We are forbidden to assist anyone.”

“But the King invited him,” Todd insisted.

The guard stood in silence, his hand falling by his side. He didn’t make eye contact with Todd but stared ahead, as all the other guards have too. 

Todd let out an irritated breath. He didn’t like the King already, with just meeting his guards. 

Todd found himself waiting for the Wizard of the Waste out of pity, despite corgi-Dirk bumping into his legs in a hurry. Todd stood in his place, fighting to keep his expression as emotionless as possible when the wizard finally reached him, looking so much older than what Todd was cursed to become. 

“Are you willing to come now, Mr. Cjelli?” The guard asked Todd, his voice flat.

Todd really, really hoped the Wizard of the Waste wasn't one of the people who knew Dirk's old name. That could ruin everything.  “Yes,” Todd replied, frowning at the guard. What an ass.

The royal guard turned to the Palace and began walking, and Todd followed with corgi-Dirk at his feet. The Wizard of the Waste was struggling even more than he did climbing the stairs, and before they reached the entrance to the Palace Todd turned to face him.

“Here,” he said, giving the wizard his walking cane. At the baffled look he received in response, Todd deepened his frown. “You need it more than I do.”

The Wizard of the Waste took Todd’s cane reluctantly, and then they entered the Palace hall. Todd walked on the guard’s side, feeling much more collected than he did a few moments ago. Now that he was finally in the Palace, his head cleared. 

Behind them, the Wizard of the Waste breathed heavily, the sound of his sighs and the walking cane following Todd inside as the wizard finally reached Todd’s slow pace.

“Pull yourself together,” Todd told him. “Isn’t this what you’ve been waiting for?”

The Wizard of the Waste didn’t answer, only huffed in response. After a few moments of Todd walking calmly, the wizard spoke up quietly. “Cjelli… That name sounds familiar.”

“Of course it does,” Todd said confidently. “That was the name of my hat shop.”

“It was?” The wizard asked, sounding more unsure than anything.

The guard took them to an empty dimly-lit room, with just a chandelier and a burning fireplace lighting it up. The ceiling was high and the wooden floor was dark brown, three of warmly-coloured walls nearly entirely covered by different odd oil paintings. The last one led to a dark hallway.

“Wait here,” the guard told them. He left the room from the door they entered through, closing it behind him. 

“A chair!” gasped the Wizard of the Waste, rushing in his tumbling state to the chair placed in front of the fireplace.

Corgi-Dirk had run off to a dark corner in the room, Todd losing sight of him after it entered the dark hallway.

“Dirk!” He called after him quietly. “Get back here!”

Todd moved from his place by the door, giving the unmoving wizard on the chair a single glance before walking into the hallway after the gone corgi. Todd suddenly found himself entering a dark green room with different symbols carved into the floor, with an elevator door built in one of the walls and a girl with a black bob-cut standing by it. 

The girl looked about Amanda’s age, with wide bright eyes and white uniform. She stood as tall as Todd.

“This way, please,” she said, tipping her head in the direction of the open elevator door. 

Todd silently obliged, stepping inside after the black-haired girl. She pressed one of the many buttons, and as the doors closed Todd felt as if the elevator was moving sideways, and not up or down. He was sporting a headache when the doors finally opened again, and he stepped outside to another hallway. 

“What’s your name?” Todd asked, trying to take in all he was seeing in the Palace. Everything was so  _ expensive _ . 

“Lamia,” she answered. 

“How did you get to work for the King?” He asked her.

“It’s more like he works for me, really,” Lamia said, and despite her sweet smile, her eyes showed him she wasn’t someone to mess with. 

Todd could only nod in response. The continued in silence until they reached an enormous garden. Lamia didn’t slow her pace to let Todd take in the amazing giant flowers and plants, signing him to stand still as the reached a large seat not facing them. 

Lamia went forward and Todd was given half a second to admire the giant garden  — more like hall  — he stood in. The walls and ceiling were all glass and the only light source was the early afternoon sun, giving the feeling like they were standing outside. 

After Lamia finished whispering something in the seated person’s ear they signed a paper by their side and Mona took it from them, then left the room without another word. 

Todd stood confused in his place behind the person’s chair, not knowing what he should do. Soon enough they spoke up. 

“I understand you’re Svlad’s father,” said the person who Todd assumed could only be Priest. His voice was cold and stiff and he sounded like a military man. Todd hated him instantly.

Todd took in a silent breath, knowing full well to expect someone who knew all of Dirk’s tricks. He stood in his place, not being told to do otherwise. “Call me Cjelli.”

Todd saw the back of Priest’s head as he nodded, then he gestured for a plain chair in front of him. “Please, have a seat."

Todd moved forward to the chair silently, a contrast to Priest’s own fancy one. It was odd, just those two seats in the middle of a vast garden, otherwise empty from objects.

As Todd sat down he took in Priest — a man in his fifties with unsettling eyes and scarred skin, his chopped hair and serious expression making him look like he’d fit right in the battlefield as a general, or a bounty hunter. Nothing about him fit with the beautiful garden he sat in.

“I’m His Majesty’s Wizard,” Priest introduced himself. “Sir Priest.”

Just then, corgi-Dirk entered the room, running silently on its little paws until it reached Priest, and laid down beneath his chair. 

Todd’s eyes widened despite himself. It was such a bad idea for Dirk to be there, Priest would certainly recognize him. “Uh, that dog is…”

Priest raised his eyebrows almost innocently, then motioned below his chair. “Oh, you mean Lamia? I sent her to escort you.”

“Isn’t Lamia—” Todd began, frowning at a loss of words. “I thought she was the girl with black hair.”

Priest smiled at Todd, flashing his teeth in a way that made Todd wince. “She is, too. It depends on her mood.”

Todd was beyond confused. He was in the room with Priest, and apparently, the corgi that walked him was a shapeshifting girl who claimed to have the King in her back pocket, and Dirk wasn’t there with him. Todd wasn’t sure if he was relieved that Dirk wasn’t in the same room as Priest like he was, or if he was angry with Dirk not keeping his promise. 

“I understand Svlad won’t be joining us, then,” Priest said, his voice an echo of a taunt.

“Can you believe he sends his old father to make excuses for him?” Todd asked, shaking his head in what he hoped would pass as annoyed. “I’m sure he’d be completely useless to His Majesty.”

Priest leaned his chin against his palm on one of his seat’s handles, thinking about Todd’s words for a moment. “It’s a shame. He was my last apprentice. A student with a great gift. I believed he could inherit my place if he put his mind enough into it.” Priest sighed, but Todd doubted its sincerity. “And then he let that demon steal his heart, and left everything I offered him behind. He turned his magic to purely selfish uses.”

Todd wanted to interfere with Priest’s lazy words but gritted his teeth as he held himself back. When Priest’s cold eyes fixed on him, Todd could imagine the same gaze being stared at the wizard’s rivals. “Your boy is dangerous, Cjelli. His power is too great for one with no heart. If he follows that path he’ll find himself not so different than the Wizard of the Waste.” Priest turned his head to the side, looking in the direction of the door. “Bring him in.”

Todd’s eyes tore from Priest to where he was looking, watching a boy dressed the same as Lamia was bringing inside a wheelchair occupied by an old man who Todd slowly realized was the Wizard of the Waste.

The Wizard of the Waste was but an echo of himself — pale and glossy-eyed, his hair muffled, grey and thin and his whole body looking so much skinnier. Everything about him looked drained from what he looked even as he sat on the chair in front of the fire in the Palace.

Todd’s eyes shot back to Priest’s stoic expression who watched him back. Todd knew half of what Priest told him was twisted and manipulated right to fit what he wanted his words to mean in Todd’s head, not necessarily stating the true nature of things.  He looked back at the Wizard of the Waste as the wheelchair was put on his side, placing his hand on the wizard’s shoulder. “What happened?” He asked in worry, trying to keep the panic out of his voice. 

The Wizard of the Waste didn’t reply but kept slowly breathing. He was staring at nothing in particular.

“I drained his magic out of him,” Priest explained, but Todd couldn’t look away from the weak man by his side. “All his powers are gone. Once upon a time, he was a great asset.  Then he made a bargain with a demon who consumed him." Priest chuckled dryly. "The rest is history.”

Todd turned his head to look at the royal advisor, his blood rushing in his veins like the spreading fire in a dry forest. At the sight of the unaffected Priest, Todd accepted the realization of what a cruel and frightening man Priest was. If Todd had to point at a heartless man in the kingdom it would’ve certainly been him.

His knuckles whitened at his tightened grip over the Wizard of the Waste and received no response. He really,  _ really _ hoped the wizard wasn’t dead.

Priest’s mouth formed into a thin line, still not sparing the Wizard of the Waste a single glance. “Our kingdom cannot afford to turn a blind eye to disreputing wizards and witches. If Svlad comes to his senses and serves his land, I will teach him how to break the deal with that demon. If he won’t, I will stripe him from his powers like I did with Friedkin.”

_ Friedkin. _ That was the Wizard of the Waste’s name. The powerful and known wizard across the land was now just a faded version of a man.

Todd’s heartbeat ringed in his ears at Priest’s apathy. He found himself standing up in a fit of rage. “Now I understand why Svlad refused to come here. It’s all wrong! Forcing your old guests to climb all those stairs, dragging them through dark rooms like it’s a trap! You call him heartless  — because he’s unpredictable and unexplainable and selfish — but all he wants is to be free.”

Priest was looking at him with honest emotion for the first time since he entered the room. It was surprise. Todd felt light-headed. 

“Svlad won’t turn into the monster you think he will,” Todd continued, “He’s brave enough to battle his demon on his own. I know he will.” 

Todd’s shoulders released their tension and his fisted hands by his sides unclenched. Priest’s expression shifted into confusion and then back to being smug.

Todd was unaware of how, right in front of Priest’s predatory gaze, his spell was being unfolded. He stood in the royal garden, thirty years old again.

“Why,” Priest began, an unnerving smile spreading on his lips. “This comes as a surprise.”

Todd’s heart missed a beat at the thought of blowing everything up with his short temper. Couldn’t he keep his mouth shut just one? He took a shocked step back, wincing in self-loathing at the thought of his failure, not knowing how while he did just that he had aged back again to his cursed self. It felt like a weight has been put over his shoulders again. 

Todd opened his mouth to protest at Priest’s words, not even knowing what to say or how, when a hand caught the hem of his coat and tugged on it to get Todd’s attention. 

Todd turned his head to face the Wizard of the Waste —  _ Friedkin _ — looking up at Todd with an exhausted and manic look in his wide eyes. 

“Cjelli — Is Icarus coming?” He asked, voice hoarse and old. “I want Icarus’s heart, I want it!” Friedkin clutched to Todd in desperation, nearly toppling out of his wheelchair as he tried to bring Todd closer to him. 

Todd stumbled at that and Friedkin fell from his wheelchair as he kept babbling frantically, and Todd leaned over to catch the man by his elbows and raise him back to his wheelchair.

“That’s enough of that,” he said in expiration. “Icarus isn’t coming.”

An engine whirred bove them and Todd looked up, catching sight of a single-engine airplane flying overhead and close to the glass ceiling. It slowly landed outside, the trees out of the garden walls shaking from the wind caused by the plane. Todd could see it clearly through the glass wall between them.

“I believe Icarus will most definitely come, with you here.” Priest spoke calmly, and when Todd looked back at the man his eyes gleamed like a knife’s edge. 

Todd didn’t completely understand how it happened, but now Priest had found a weakness to hold onto and use against Dirk. Todd felt so fucking stupid.

The pilot of the small plane entered the garden through a glass door in the wall. Inside walked in a black man with stiff steps, dressed in deep red clothes with goggles on his forehead. 

Priest looked at the man, a smile growing on his face in acknowledgment of the new man entering the room. He looked like he was about to rise to his feet in greeting, but the man walking towards them raised his hand in dismissal.

“How was the conference?” Priest asked him.

“Meetings with Riggins always bore me,” the red-dressed man replied, stopping in his place as he stood on Priest’s side. “I flew out to breathe some air.”  The man spared Todd a look, studying him quickly with his eyes. He didn’t even speak at him when he talked to Priest again. “Who are those two?”

“This is Wizard Gently’s father,” Priest said. 

Todd’s heart got stuck in his throat. Did Priest know all of Dirk’s identities? How long was it to be until Priest would find Dirk for real?

And who was that man in the room with them? Why was Priest lying to him, even though he clearly knew Todd wasn’t Dirk’s dad?

The black man shifted in his place, folding his hands over his chest as he moved to stand in front of Todd, cold eyes looking at him intently. “I see,” he said slowly. “I appreciate the gesture, but I don’t intend to use any more magic to win this war. It’s true that Priest’s powers shield the Palace from bombing, but they just fall on neighbouring towns.” Priest made a small face behind him, and Todd was certain that the wizard didn’t care if it meant he was safe and winning. “That’s how it works, right, Priest?”

“It is, Your Majesty,” Priest answered flatly. 

_ Your Majesty _ . That was the Prince he was speaking to, as he was far too young to be the King himself. The Prince who Dirk had broken his heart, or something.

From the door which the apprentice had brought Friedkin inside, entered another man, calling out, “Priest!”

Todd looked to his side at the source of the voice, seeing a man waving a paper in his hands  —  looking just the same as the Prince in front of him, only without the goggles on his head.

Todd’s head throbbed. Two Princes? Looking exactly alike?

“This is the final battle,” the second Prince announced confidently. “This time, we’ll beat them to a pulp.”

“I await our meeting, Your Majesty,” Priest replied. 

The second Prince looked at the Prince standing next to Todd and raised his eyebrows with an amused smile, tilting his head back at Priest. “You’ve really outdone yourself this time, Priest. A perfect double?”

“Thank you, sir,” said Priest, smiling an amused smile of his own.

With that, the second Prince left, already talking with the soldier waiting for him in the doorway as he was halfway there. The room was silent as Priest watched the Prince like a lion watching its prey. The Prince stared him straight in the eyes, unmoving from Todd’s side.

After what felt to Todd like hours Priest spoke up. “It’s been a while, Icarus.” He waved his hand at the Prince with a grimace. “Svlad. Dirk. Whatever you call yourself these days. I saw right through you  — I always do.”

In silence, Todd watched as the Prince shifted to Dirk: white skin and black hair, green eyes. He was pale, but held his chin high. He placed his white-gloved hand around Todd’s shoulder swiftly before Todd could even let out a breath of surprise, or relief. 

“I don’t want to fight you,” Dirk said calmly. “I’ll take my father, and that will be it.”

“Do you really think I’m going to let you go this time?” Pries asked, voice low and wide grin dangerous. He raised his hand and brought it down in a swift wind, and with it came a loud sound of shattering glass and flooding water as waves began crashing into the garden, growing higher and higher with each breath Todd let out. 

Priest didn’t move and sat still in his place, the raging waters not affecting him. He watched them as Dirk’s grip tightened around Todd, with Friedkin clutching desperately to Todd’s leg as he sat in the wheelchair.

Still, Dirk was unfazed with the flood growing higher and stronger. His eyebrows were furrowed in a deep scowl and Todd knew the gravity of Dirk being in the same room as Priest. There was nothing sunny about him at the moment. 

The waves crashed over their heads, and everything turned black. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> godddd this is definitely the longest chapter yet! oh this took me forever i'm so sorry  
> so yeah y'all met mona and priest and ken, and friedkin is back. i really like how i made priest and the whole atmosphere in the royal garden. i hope you enjoyed reading it as much as i did writing! let me know what you guys think, it means the world to me :))


	6. In Which There Is a Great Deal of Witchcraft

With the waves crashing over them Todd felt a sharp coldness wash over him. To his surprise, it didn’t feel like the water had soaked anything. It was as if a gush of strong wind hit him rather than rushing waters.

When Todd opened his tightly shut eyes he found they were no longer in the royal garden hall. They were high in the middle of the sky, the ground far below them  — much higher than Todd found himself the day he met Dirk. The sky was deep blue and open above them, endless fields and mountains below them. 

“Don’t look down,” Dirk said quietly. “You’ll be dragged.”

Todd held tight to Dirk on his side as he nodded in response, feeling comfort in Dirk’s own grip around him. The wind didn’t stop blowing wildly.

Priest’s voice was near and seemed to come from everywhere at once, though his figure was nowhere to be seen in the open sky. “It’s time I show your _ father _ what you really are.”

Friedkin coughed weakly, holding for dear life at Todd’s ankles. Around them, the empty sky darkened and a star began falling. It rushed to the ground, soon joined by more — dancing fireworks shot from the sky. They exploded in the air at the line of Dirk’s torso before nearing the faraway ground, all but a dozen of stars who landed peacefully around them, not much bigger than Todd’s fists. 

In front of Todd’s eyes, the twelve shining stars morphed into something else. They grew what could only be described as half-transparent limbs as the small burning orbs and light seemed to be their heads. The stars joined their slender strange arms, creating a dimly glowing circle around them, moving slowly in what could be seen as a sort of ritual dance. 

The stars’ heads were exploding in colours as they swayed, and somehow we’re making soft and quiet noises. It was almost as if they were chanting a melody, either a song or a curse. Dirk’s hands tightened on Todd’s shoulder until it became near painful.

Todd’s eyes jumped from the moving stars to his shoulder, eyes widening at the sight of Dirk’s gloved hand. It slowly transformed into a black claw, dark feathers breaking into the fabric as if they were a sharp knife’s edge.

Todd looked up in shock to Dirk, searching for an explanation only to find Dirk staring straight ahead in determination.

Pitch-black feathers replaced Dirk’s soft hair, growing from the skin of his face and neck. His gloves were completely torn and soon enough all his clothes were too, revealing Dirk’s entire torso and legs to be entirely covered in the same long feathers, arms morphing to wings. His long fangs were revealed as his expression turned into a sort of snarl. 

The sky was completely black. Nothing but them, dimly lit by the dancing stars, was as dark as night. From the shadows surfaced Priest, standing distanced from them behind the stars, a menacing look in his eyes.

Dirk’s face went wild, like a scared animal and a furious victim and a feral ocean. His eyes burned as Priest stopped in front of them. While the moments passed, the stars’ light grew stronger and stronger, and with it, Dirk grew more restless.

It was magic, whatever it was meaning to do, and it was definitely beginning to work. Todd felt Dirk’s claw dig through the fabric of his black coat. He turned in his place, floating, not knowing what to do.

He cupped Dirk’s face in his hands, saying frantically, “Don’t let him get to you, Dirk.” 

He covered Dirk’s manic eyes with his wrinkled hands in an attempt to break the eye contact Priest held with the wizard. His heart constricted in his chest as Dirk made a strangled sound.

Then Dirk put his winged claw around Todd’s back, pulling their chests flush against each other. In a moment’s notice, a sharp sound rang in Todd’s ears like something running right past him without hitting. They were gone from the strange skies, flying upwards quickly before Todd could gather their surroundings.

They had dodged a curse or spell or whatever it was Priest was planning to do to them, breaking through a glass ceiling when Todd realized it was the garden’s. He found they were soaring above the Palace in the world Todd knew was his own.

Todd looked up to the person he was pressed against, being met with the sight of the human and weakly smiling Dirk. Quickly they were back on the ground far from the garden and Dirk ran ahead to get hold of what was a sort of plane, just a metal surface with a steering wheel and chair at the front and another chair at the back, barely two meters long with an engine on the bottom of it. Physics? Todd didn’t know her. 

Todd dragged Friedkin there as Dirk turned on the vehicle, his whole body screaming when he finally managed to put the old wizard on the back chair, letting out a loud groan when the engine whirred into life and Dirk grinned. 

Todd stood between the two seats as Dirk steered, and they were taking off the ground. Barely a meter above the ground, and Lamia the corgi dog jumped as she sprinted on the grass and landed in Friedkin’s lap.

The blood rushed in Todd’s ears as Kingsbury passed quickly beneath them, finding it surprisingly easy to keep his balance as they fled. Friedkin seemed unfazed altogether from what had happened in the garden just moments ago, petting Lamia with a lazy smile. 

Todd looked to his other side and saw Dirk, standing firm and collected as if he hadn’t just been turned into a winged creature against his will by his old tutor.

Dirk looked back at him, and Todd suspected he felt Todd watching him. “Sit up front, Todd,” he said. “Your gang is taking over the back seat.” 

Todd moved forward with shaking legs, admitting to himself that actually walking as Dirk sprinted ahead was far more difficult than staying put. “You’re driving like a mad man,” he muttered as he slumped down on the seat.

“We  _ are _ being chased,” Dirk replied easily, but Todd had a feeling it wouldn’t be much different even if Priest wasn’t on their tail.

They nearly flew into a tower, and Todd gripped his seat until his knuckles turned white. He turned his head backwards at Friedkin and Lamia, scowling.

“Nice doggie,” Friedkin murmured happily as he let the corgi stand at his feet without a care in the world.

Lamia barked loudly at Todd’s suspicious expression. 

Todd scrunched up his nose in response. “You’re Priest’s spy, aren’t you?”

Lamia turned in front of his eyes back to the black-haired girl he met in the Palace. Friedkin nearly toppled over at the sudden girl sitting cross-legged at his feet in place of the dog.

“I’m not,” she told Todd, folding her arms over her chest as her brows furrowed in a scowl. “Tell him, Dirk.”

Todd was surprised that Lamia knew Dirk’s name, and was even more so at Dirk’s immediate response. “I’m sure Mona will be just fine,” he said confidently, then added before Todd could think, “Todd, could you steer?” 

His confusion at Dirk and Lamia’s — Dirk and Mona’s,  _ whatever _ — relationship was thrown to the wind at Dirk’s prompt. “No way! No.”

“Priest is after us,” Dirk said simply, eyes set straight ahead.

Todd and Mona — was Lamia her last name? Or a fake one, like Dirk’s many? — looked behind them, and indeed on their way were about a dozen similar ships and single-planes occupied by what seemed to be armed snipers.

“I’ll take care of them,” Dirk told him. “Fly straight to the Castle in the Waste.” He steered with one hand, the other taking Todd’s and putting them both over the wheel. His hands held Todd’s.

Oh, God. “Dirk, I really can’t.”

“Todd, you really can,” Dirk insisted. “Have a little bit of faith. The stream of creation will get you there by nightfall.”

Dirk took off one of his hands, so only one of his was on the wheel with Todd’s. He let go of the hand Todd wore the ring on, and just then the sun hit the red gemstone on his ring. A thin red light guided Todd forwards, exiting from the ring like a laser ray. 

The stream of creation? Or was it just one of Dirk’s spells?

Todd couldn’t bury his anger, now that they were already far from the Palace. “Why send me to Priest if you were coming yourself?” He knew how harsh he sounded, but he couldn’t help it.  _ It was too stupid of you, Jesus fuck.  _

“You gave me the courage to do it,” Dirk said, all confidence stripped off of him. Todd’s body had  _ definitely _ not released its tension at Dirk’s sincere voice. 

“You saved me back there,” he continued. “I was in grave danger.” Then, he instructed: “Don’t let go.” 

Dirk stood up and swiftly took his left hand from the steering wheel, leaving Todd to the task. He looked at Todd in a strange and captivating way, with a cottony brush to his gaze. It brought to Todd’s mind the touch of warm flannel.

Todd really liked the feeling of warm flannel, now that he thought of it. They nearly crashed into another building.

Dirk’s eyes didn’t waver from Todd, even when Todd himself looked ahead in a panic. He heard Dirk snicker fondly at his side. “You’re good.”

“Fuck off,” Todd spat, biting his grin back.

Todd could practically hear the cheeky smile radiating from Dirk before he turned serious again.  _ Idiot. _ “I can give you five minutes of invisibility, use it.”

They were heading outside Kingsbury and into the woods. Dirk jumped off the plane, floating midair as he faced the nearing snipers and they turned invisible. Todd was so startled that his hands and wheel vanished that he very nearly flew into the nearest tree.

He really better get the hang of it. He was nearly as bad as Dirk. 

As Todd made their way following the thin red light coming out of Dirk’s silver ring, he was unaware of how on the Castle’s red and blue doors people were forcefully trying to break inside on Priest’s orders. 

Priest knew for a long time where Dirk was placed, waiting for a moment to strike. Now it has come. In Kingsbury, royal guards finally broke the red door, rushing through it only to find themselves standing in an abandoned wreck that wasn’t a part of the Castle, but a ruin in Kingsbury itself.

On the other end of the blue door, the struggling soldiers managed to do the same and found themselves standing in an abandoned ruin in their port city.

Bart didn’t let them in, and thus the direct entries to the land were destroyed. Now the only functioning doors were the green and black. 

It was pouring rain, soaking Todd’s clothes and skin. It had only been about an hour or so when Todd recognized the bleary town far below them.

“We’re not far,” he told Friedkin and the corgi, looking back at them. “That’s my hometown.”

Friedkin was asleep and snoring loudly through the storm. The dog looked up at Todd, raising her dripping head from the floor of the vehicle. At her gaze, he turned his head back to the road ahead of them. 

“I still don’t trust you, little corgi,” Todd informed her. “Lamia. Mona. Whatever.”

His face made a sort of grimace at his rumbling, but he shook himself out of it. Instead, he let his eyes fall to his hometown, unable to ignore the beating ache in his chest as they passed the all-too-familiar scenery. 

Todd had never seen it from so high above, only ever walking in those streets, now dark and nearly empty.

Todd knew it was all for the best. Him high above, the town down below. He would come back home after he’ll turn back to his own self. He would.

Even if he didn’t feel much like his old self anymore.

Was it selfish of him, to find himself a sort of happiness he hadn’t known back home? Todd couldn’t tell. His gut turned, and not because of the flight.

He stared troubled at the guiding light, forcing his wind to let go of the nagging thoughts. He fidgeted on the wheel, uneasy.

Eventually, they entered the Wastes, and the rain had calmed down to a mere drizzle. After passing several mountains and flying over the open fields Todd caught sight of the Castle coming their way. 

Never before Todd thought he’d ever feel such gratitude and happiness upon seeing that thing.

“We’re nearly there!” Todd cried in relief, both to Mona and to himself. 

As they approached closer Todd could make out Farah waving at him from the balcony, with Turnip spinning by her side. He was reaching them, grinning and flying at a very high speed when he realized he had no idea how to stop his vehicle.

“Todd!” Farah called at him from the balcony, leaning against the wet and slippery railing with a smile spread across her face.

Todd tried not to let his own waver at his sudden worrying realization. “Farah, help! I don’t know how to stop this thing!” 

Farah ran inside the Castle without another word, and Todd was left outside doing circles in the air as he waited for Farah to return. In the meantime, he watched Turnip watching him. She looked the same as he had last seen her. Should he tell her he lost the walking cane she gave him? Well, Friedkin did.

A loud and creaking sound was made from the Castle as its mouth opened wide, and without missing a beat Todd flew right inside and threw havoc through the entire first floor. 

The vehicle was entirely ruined side Todd had flown right into his improvised bedroom behind the curtain under the staircase, ruining a few of the wooden stairs to the second floor and wetting everything in its way. 

Farah looked around in the clouds of smoke and dust when she saw an old figure sitting in the midst of it all, and right away leaned closer to help them get up. She was fairly startled when she was met with the sight of a complete stranger who was not Todd and looked even older than he was.

The old man looked at her dazedly. “Doggie,” he slurred.

At his feet erupted a soaked little corgi. It moved from the wrecks to Turnip, leaving Farah baffled with the man in her care. 

Then Todd’s voice reached her, and relief washed over. “Farah! I’m home!”

He was behind all the mess, one step away from falling out of the Castle’s still open mouth. He stumbled over the wreck to Farah, dirty and soaking wet and tired. 

“Todd, are you hurt?” Before he could answer her, Farah threw herself on Todd in a quick and tight hug. “You’re back!”

Todd hugged her back, completely taken by surprise at the warm embrace. At first he felt bad for getting her all wet from his clothes and skin, but dismissed the thought to the back of his brain as he let himself just accept what Farah had given him. 

He looked up from her shoulder as they stood there, seeing Turnip standing by Bart’s fireplace. He couldn’t help but smile.

“You two didn’t bond when I was gone, did you?” He asked jokingly. 

Farah let out a choked chuckle into his shoulder, and Turnip spun in her place. Bart groaned loudly at them, so Todd obviously took it as a negative.

It took them a few hours to get settled, though it didn’t include cleaning anything up. The first floor of the Castle was still a wreck, but by then Farah and Mona had brought the couch from Farah’s room on which Friedkin was now fast asleep. Mona was asleep at his feet on the red cushions, back again as a corgi.

Todd himself was asleep on his mattress, only having moved it from under the broken stairs and by the couch in the middle of the room after he dried himself up. Bart watched him from her fireplace, humming lazily as her flames danced across his face. Todd wasn’t old, the curse cast on him wavering as he breathed deeply. 

She couldn’t understand it. How come he was young again? It wasn’t the first time she saw him just so, though every time it happened it didn’t last for long. Bart had no idea what was the cause of his curse weakening but also didn’t have much interest in finding out. She had enough on her plate, and knew better than to get herself into more of the universe’s uncontrollable wants and whims if she could. 

At the feeling of the familiar presence on the other side of the door, she fell silent. The black door creaked open, and from the blackness of the night entered an invisible figure. With each step they made inside, a trial of dark clawed footprints was created on the floor  — perhaps drying blood, or fired gun powder.

Bart didn’t need the invisible figure to reveal themselves to recognize them.

“You’ve gone too far, Dirk,” she said.

Dirk was a mere shadow of himself, exhausted. He dragged his claws by Todd’s mattress without responding to Bart, and with slow steps crawled up the stairs, his wings trailing behind him.

When Todd was stirred awake, no one was there other than the sleeping Friedkin and Mona. A worrying feeling nagged at the bottom of his stomach, and half asleep Todd could make out how something wasn’t right. 

Todd rose to lean against his elbows, looking around and noticing the clawed prints on the floor. Beside his head was one of the footprints, with a dark feather in it.

He recognized it to be Dirk’s, from the way he looked as Priest taunted them with dancing stars and strange skies. He reached his hand to hold the feather, confused at the sticky feeling it had instead of the softness Dirk’s feathers held that day. His eyes widened when he understood the dark red now tinting his fingers was from the blood on the feather.

Something bad had happened to Dirk as he covered for Todd and the others to get back to the Castle. Todd felt sick with worry.

He dropped the feather quickly to the ground and stood up from his mattress, going to the sink to wash his hand and then lit up a candle. Running his free hand over his face to wake up, he began making his way up the stairs to the second floor, hoping greatly they won’t break down beneath him. 

Todd was too troubled to recognize in himself the light-headed feeling he felt earlier that day in Priest’s garden, as he turned young again without knowing.

As Todd climbed up the stairs he took a deep breath to calm himself, feeling his anxiety knotting in his stomach at the sight of the blood tainting the staircasr. Feathers stuck out of the stairs and railing and wall. 

He followed the claws on the second floor down the corridor. The only source of light on the floor was his candle as he reached Dirk’s closed bedroom door.

He called out worriedly, “Dirk?”

Upon hearing no response, Todd pushed open the door and stood still in the doorway in shock. Dirk’s room was fat from being a room still, but more of a dark and unlit cave, going on far further than Todd could make out. It seemed like all of Dirk’s belongings were still there, only on the floor of the strange place that took the space of Dirk’s bedroom.

What the  _ fuck _ ?

Todd shook his head, determined, forcefully  collecting himself . He walked inside with sure steps, the candlelight faintly reflecting against the gems scattered everywhere. Todd winced when he stepped into something damp, no doubt a paddle of blood.

He made his way further, his steps echoing quietly until he stopped in his place at the sight in front of him. The road parted in two directions, and Todd had no idea where he was supposed to go. He saw no footprints since he entered the room, and couldn’t find feathers fallen in each of the paths.

Todd closed his eyes, thinking intently. As he searched in his head for a solution, he noticed the faint sound of a howling wind. His eyelids flew open, and he looked focused into each tunnel, searching the one which the wind was coming from.

He stepped into the tunnel on the right, returning to his former pace. As he moved deeper inside, Todd noticed how the different things on the ground of the tunnel  — pendants, ornaments, broken clocks — grew less and less until all that was in the tunnel were dark feathers sticking from the walls and ceiling.

After what felt close to an hour, or two, or maybe a day, Todd reached a dead-end. At first, he thought it was the wall of the tunnel, covered completely with feathers dirty from dry blood. Soon enough he noticed the wall moving with ragged breaths, and understood that the massive mass of feathers was something  _ alive _ . 

“Dirk, is that you?” Todd called out, taking a cautious step closer. 

He got a wordless noise of frustration in response. The low grunt ringing in his ear and the thick smell of sweat and metal in his nose reminded him too much of Farah’s stories about Dirk’s action on the battlefield.

“Are you hurt?” Todd asked him, voice steady as he took a few confident steps closer. “In pain?”

“Stay away,” Dirk nearly growled, each word coming out of his mouth slow and pained. If Todd wouldn’t have stood at an arm’s length away from him, he doubted he would’ve heard him.

If Todd wasn’t yet sure it really was Dirk who was in front of him, now it was final. He would recognize that voice everywhere. In the dark, through a spell. It brought him the courage he so desperately sought. “I’m going to help you. Let me break the spell you’re under.”

Dirk shifted to face Todd in an agonizing move, body (was it even his body?) only half turned to Todd as he tilted his head to face him. His face was sickly pale, skin stubbly as if feathers weren’t done growing out of him. He had no hair, no limbs, just those dark feathers. As he opened his mouth to speak, Todd saw his sharp teeth —  _ so many teeth _ . “You can’t even break your own spell.”

Dirk turned his face away again, in anger, or in shame. It dawned on Todd when he reached out his free hand to touch Dirk how young his hands looked. Could it be—

When Todd’s hand met Dirk the wizard stood, or flew, or howled, and feathers were suddenly everywhere in Todd’s sight and he could see nothing but the rushing darkness tainted in deep red and hear the strong wind in his ears.

Then, Dirk was gone. Todd was unharmed. And looking down at his hands, he saw they were old again. He wondered if he imagined it just a moment before.

Todd jolted up in his mattress on the first floor, cold sweat clinging to his skin and the sound of the bathtub running filling the quiet Castle. 

_ Was it all just a vivid dream? _ Todd turned his head as he sat in his bed, looking at the staircase to the second floor, finding them as dirty as they were in his dream.

He turned back to sit comfortably, looking down at his hands. He examined his palms and fingers, and indeed they were still wrinkled and weak.

Todd sighed to himself. He turned his head to the side, tiredly looking at Bart for an explanation he knew she wouldn’t give him.

“Dirk must be back,” he said quietly to her, just because he didn’t know what else to say. Sometimes Todd sought so badly for comfort without even knowing why, he couldn’t bear it.

Bart huffed at that, clarifying his assumption. After a moment or so she said, “You better figure out how to lift my spell soon, Todd. We’re both running out of time.”

Todd was struck at her words, still shaken from his dream — his memory. What Todd had just witnessed up in Dirk’s bedroom was  _ real _ , he knew it.

He swallowed thickly. “Is Dirk really going to turn into a monster?”

“I can’t tell you that,” Bart muttered. “I’m a demon.”

Todd was  _ not _ having it. He stood up and walked up to the fireplace as he looked at her in determination. “Bart, Preist told me Dirk gave you something very precious. What is it? Where is it?”

“That’s confidential, short man,” she replied almost angrily.

Todd frowned at that, putting his hands on his hips. “And if I’ll pour water on you?”

Bart finally met his eyes, her own wild ones wide open. “You won’t! Dirk will die with me.”

Todd found himself outside by the early morning with Turnip by his side, both of them standing in the Wastes between the nearby cliff and the Castle. Todd was with his back to the Castle, folding his hands over his chest as he looked down on the view in front of him. The sun was slowly climbing up the sky and the air was fresh, but something was very much off. 

And not just because of how Dirk was still taking his shower.

“Good morning, Turnip,” Todd greeted as he heard the scarecrow hop to a stop beside him. 

She didn’t reply, for obvious reasons. The two of them stood there for a long while in the silence, Todd replaying his conversation with Bart from just a few hours ago in his head as he tried not to dwell on how of course everything had to be so complicated. 

“Something is coming,” Todd murmured, partly a warning to Turnip and partly to breathe out the sour feeling in his stomach. 

It was funny how the world seemed different in the early moments of the day, with the sun just barely out. Todd never was actually awake in those hours before he joined Dirk and Farah in the Castle, with him being far from a morning person. 

Still, it seemed like different realizations were to be made in that half-asleep state of the world. Or maybe it was just his sleep-deprivation talking. 

A few hours later, after a well-made breakfast and long talk between Todd and Farah, they finally took on themselves the task at hand: the vehicle crashed in the middle of the first floor. So here they were, with Farah taking the lead down in the Wastes when Todd stood inside the Castle.

The Castle’s mouth was wide open like it had been last night, and Todd was tying a rope around the wrecked plane. Outside Farah held the other end of the rope, ready to pull it out with the help of corgi-Mona and Turnip at the end of the rope.

“We’re ready!” Farah called.

Todd finished tightening the rope and signalled for Farah to wait one moment when he turned back around and yelled to Bart, “Open wider, Bart!”

The Castle creaked and whined as the metal mouth slowly opened even more. With a satisfied grin, Todd rushed to the back of the plane ready to push it out. 

“Here goes!” He shouted over the wreck. “Pull!”

Despite the hard team-effort, the vehicle stayed stubbornly put in its place on the floor. Todd huffed angrily and kicked the mess in front of him, to which surprisingly the engine choked into life and began whirring spasmodically. By being pulled by Farah, Turnip and Mona, the plane slowly made its way out of the mouth and out to the open. 

The moment it left the Castle’s ground it fell to the field in a seizure and the Farah immediately let go of the rope and ran far back, followed by Mona and Turnip. 

It was a little amusing to Todd, watching them scatter a little until the plane dropped dead. 

In the happiness of it being over Turnip spun in her place, Farah’s grin noticeable to Todd even from so far away. With a sigh of relief, he brushed his hands over his pants and went for a broom. He began to sweep the floor by the Castle’s still open mouth and the stairs where havoc was made.

“They call this a castle like it isn’t a giant piece of junk,” he muttered under his breath as he swept. He could hear Farah’s voice being carried in by the wind as she talked with Turnip and Mona, smiling lightly to himself. 

He missed the sound of the water no longer running and was brought back to reality when he heard the bathroom door creak open and faint steps going down the stairs. 

Todd turned around to the stairs and looked up, his eyes instantly clicking with Dirk’s own. Dirk was making his way down, wearing ocean green trousers and a clean white puffed-sleeves shirt, hair still damp from his long shower. His skin was pink from the heat of the water and his eyes were bright, and he looked nothing like he did that night when Todd found him. 

Todd’s breath hitched in his throat. He wanted desperately to say something about the state he found Dirk in. He wanted to ask Dirk what  _ was _ it Todd had seen, wanted to ask how Dirk was doing, or how he could help him feel better. He wanted to slap Dirk across the face and also to pull him in a tight hug until he could feel the tension leave both his and Dirk’s shoulders.

Todd didn’t know when it had happened, but Dirk was under his skin. Completely. And now he couldn’t seem to get him out.

“How are you?” Todd asked, apparently he was braver than he thought. 

Dirk stopped his slow pacing as he reached Todd, leaning against the broken staircase as if it was the most casual thing. Todd half expected him to slip and fall on his ass. “I’ve been better,” Dirk said, flashing a half-hearted smile, almost an apology. “Are  _ you _ okay?”

Todd stood frozen in his place, gripping the broom tightly in both his hands.  _ Was he _ _ — _ No, Dirk couldn’t possibly be referring to what had happened last night. He was too proud of a person. Right? 

Dirk motioned with his hands over the nearly ruined room they stood in, and realization dawned on Todd. Of course. Well, in Todd’s defence, he would’ve understood Dirk was asking him about the Castle if the wizard would’ve been a little more fazed about the whole situation. 

“Sorry, I sort of crashed inside last night,” Todd said, returning back to his sweeping just so he wouldn’t need to look at Dirk looking at him. “I warned you I would be shit at flying.”

“Oh no, I understood perfectly what happened,” Dirk said in something close to amusement. “That wasn’t what I asked.”

Todd looked from the broom and up at Dirk. Dirk, with his worried smile and the few sun-freckles on his face, with the faint scar on his cheek from the deep cut he got in what seemed like a month ago and his bright green eyes. Todd hated how Dirk watched him as if he saw Todd for himself, stripped from his curse and anxiety and anger. He hated how he wanted Dirk to watch him because of it. He hated how he wanted to watch Dirk himself. 

Todd managed a breathy chuckle, unable to look away from Dirk. “I guess I’ve been better too,” he finally said, not knowing how to convey better everything that had happened in the last twenty-four hours. “I’m just glad to be back.”

“You’re still wearing my ring,” Dirk noted in pleasant surprise.

Todd looked down to his hands, leaning the broom against his body as he began taking the silver ring off. “Oh, yeah. Here—”

“No,” Dirk rushed, his hand on Todd’s own as he spoke hurriedly. “Keep it. It did keep you fairly safe yesterday.”

“Okay,” Todd replied, because he didn’t know anything better to say at Dirk’s earnest expression.

“And enough with this,” Dirk added stubbornly, bringing his hand from Todd’s hand to his face, rubbing his finger between Todd’s eyebrows to ease his furrowing. 

Todd laughed, both in surprise and in the joy of living a moment calmly. He recognized his ease from how it felt to hear a new song for the first time, already knowing in his heart it would be his favourite for a while.

“You’re an idiot,” he told Dirk, shaking his head. 

Dirk straightened his posture, folding his arms over his chest. “Takes one to know one, Todd.”

“Uh-huh,” Todd nodded, smirking despite himself. 

“Whatever keeps you sane,” Dirk shrugged, sitting down on the floor even though Todd wasn’t close to being done with the cleaning. “You know, I wasn’t ready to meet the King when we were back there. In the Palace.”

Todd frowned in confusion. “I haven’t met no King. We saw the Prince in the garden, no?”

“Prince?” Dirk asked him, now equally confused. “That was the King.”

“What?” Todd asked, letting out a confused chuckle. He really didn’t understand what Dirk was talking about. Of course that was the Prince. Dirk himself knew that well enough! 

“Todd, what do they tell you about the King?” Dirk asked.

Todd ran a hand through his hair. “I don’t know. Rules the kingdom, runs the war, all the usual stuff. And that the Prince mainly slacks off.”

Dirk nodded along until he suddenly stopped as something clicked in his mind. “Oh, yes. That’s right, because there is no Prince. I mean, Ken Adams  _ was _ the chosen prince since the former King had no kids and Adams was his right hand. But then Adams killed the King and took over.” Dirk scratched his chin as he thought for a moment. “Well, that’s basically what happened, though the royal guards have no idea it was Adams. That’s the reason this war is going on, if we put it down to the basics.”

Todd stood quiet, eyebrows raised at Dirk’s explanation. Dirk opened his mouth, probably to say something in the lines of  _ how fucked up is that?  _ when Todd barked out in laughter.

Dirk looked up at him with a confused frown as Todd composed himself from his rolling laughter. “So you’re telling me,” he began, honest-to-God  _ wheezing _ , “You slept with the goddamn  _ King _ ? Is  _ that _ why you’re avoiding him so badly?”

Dirk’s face was burning red, and Todd was loving every moment of it. “I can’t believe this,” he continued. “Ha!”

“Shut up, Todd,” Dirk said, throwing a piece of junk at Todd’s legs and missing entirely. Still, he smiled at Todd playfully.

“He’s not even that handsome up close,” Todd taunted, just because he could. It was kinda rich coming out of him, a literal ninety-year-old.

“Yeah, yeah, whatever.” Dirk rose to his feet, stretching his back like a goddamn kitten after he stood up. “Not everyone is as good looking as you, Brotzman.”

If Farah would ask, Todd had definitely not thrown his broom at Dirk, who used his magic to send it straight at Bart’s flames in an act of defence. And it had, for sure, not been burned to a crisp with Bart’s cackling laughter.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this is actually one of my least favourite chapters, i'm not totally pleased with how my writing turned out but welp. c'est la vie*. i like the next one much better, but still i hope you've enjoyed this one too! :)
> 
> * from french: that's how it is on this bitch of an earth.


	7. In Which the Moving Castle Moves House

They sat to eat dinner, the wind blowing quietly through the Castle’s still-open mouth. It seemed it was stuck that way, unable to close despite Bart’s many tries. It was probably because she stretched it just so to pull the plane out to the Wastes. 

Farah sat in front of Todd and Friedkin with her back to Bart, sharply eyeing Friedkin as she stayed silent thought most of the meal. Todd, having no one else willing to do it, found himself feeding Friedkin despite his great uncomfortableness at being an aid to the former Wizard of the Waste. 

Friedkin himself was blissfully unaware of the charged atmosphere in the room, watching Bart in her fireplace as he swallowed another bite of soup Todd gave him. 

Bart huffed loudly and sparks blew around her as she breathed out a long breath. “He’s still the Wizard of the Waste to me,” she said, loud and stubborn. Todd couldn’t blame her. 

Todd took in a deep breath. “He’s just Friedkin now.” It was hard for him too — hell, the damn wizard had cursed him to become ninety-years old, tearing him from everything he knew all just so he could deliver a message to Dirk Gently. But now the Wizard of the Waste was a simple old man, fragile and most likely senile. Todd couldn’t bring himself to hate him anymore. 

“He’s staring at Bart,” Farah noted flatly. 

_ Bart has something precious to Dirk.  _ Did — did Friedkin know that too? Todd’s hand froze midway to bringing the spoon to Friedkin’s mouth. 

“The universe is pretty much telling me to kill him,” Bart grumbled.

Todd was about to advise to her that  _ no, perhaps she shouldn’t listen to the universe just that time _ when Friedkin spoke up, voice slurred and dreamy. “Can I touch the fire?”

Bart let out a big puff of smoke in dismay, clouding the entire area of the fireplace in a dark cloud. Turnip jumped in her place in protest to Bart’s reaction and Todd cackled to himself. 

Just then Dirk jumped down the stairs quickly, landing on the first floor. He reached the dining table at which they sat, and Todd looked behind Friedkin’s shoulder at Dirk who stood there with his hands on his hips.

“Do you think we could keep Mona?” Dirk asked, no introduction made to explain what had brought him to think it was a good idea and not just a temporary solution. 

“A former wizard and Mona Wilder?” Farah asked him. Close to a sigh, she added, “This is becoming a real asylum.”

Dirk’s head tilted to his left, giving Bart a look Todd couldn’t quite decipher. Apparently Bart could read it perfectly well, even with the smog not entirely gone through the gigantic hole in the wall.

“Don’t look at me!” Bart said. “They blew in with Todd.”

Todd’s head shot at Bart, a retort ready on his tongue when Dirk broke into easy laughter. Todd found himself closing his mouth, frowning. Partly because of the accusation and how he hadn’t defended himself, and partly because of the flutter in his chest. 

Dirk really had a nice laugh. And nice eyes, squinting at him now in a taunting smile. Had he missed something when he was caught up in sulking?

“Of course it’s Todd’s fault,” Dirk said.

“Now  _ I’m _ the careless one?” Todd asked, raising his eyebrows at Dirk. 

Dirk wiggled his own eyebrows, making a silly face as he folded his arms over his chest. At that, he made his way to the hole in the wall of the Castle by the stairs, the smoke all gone. Todd noticed when Dirk hopped over a particularly large pile of junk in the whole wreck how his trousers were just a little too short on his ankles as if he grew taller and hadn’t noticed — or cared enough to buy a new pair.

Maybe getting tailored pants in that specific shade of green wasn’t quite as easy as Dirk made wearing them seem.

“Watch your step,” Todd called to Dirk as he got closer to the teared-open wall, standing in front of Turnip.

“So you’re Turnip. You’re under quite some spell, too. Seems everyone in our family is a little complicated,” Dirk said, voice curious. Todd could see the man rolling from the base of his feet to stand on his toes in anticipation. 

Farah stood up from her place by the table and tore Todd’s attention from Dirk to her. “It’s time to move.”

“Move?” Todd asked, unsure if he heard her correctly. Where could they possibly go? Todd and Dirk had just come back. 

Dirk nodded, turning to them again from facing Turnip. “Priest can track us easily at the moment,” he said, grin faltering from his expression. “We really need to get away from here.”

After they cleared the table, Farah had gone outside to the Wastes. From the open mouth of the Castle Todd could make out her form as Dirk and he moved around the mattress and couch, making space in the middle of the first floor. Farah held something and leaned down on the grass, drawing with wide and swift movements a long line, with three lines drawn from it, each longer than the other. Above the disoriented sort of M she drew a circle. I t was huge and the paint was bright white, the moon and stars reflecting on it. After she was done she signalled to Todd and he told Bart to move forward so the Castle stood in the middle of Farah’s magic rune.

As the Castle moved Dirk himself was drawing a different symbol now cleared floor with the same white paint. It was a large diamond, adding a long line from one of the corners inside to the opposite one and a circle in the middle of it. T he lights in the room reflected on it and broke in dim colours like sunrays through glass shards. 

As Todd turned back to him after watching Farah’s figure make her way back to the Castle’s door, he saw Dirk straighten up his posture from crouching as he drew.

“Great,” he said as Farah climbed the first set of stairs up to them. “Stay put.” 

Dirk signalled to Farah, Todd and Turnip to stand aside. Todd sat beside Friedkin and Mona on the pushed-aside couch as Dirk went over to Bart’s fireplace. He picked her up in her metal shovel wordlessly, taking her from her fireplace.

“Be careful,” was all Bart told Dirk, though it seemed she was warning Dirk more about the sort of magic they were about to practice in more than the fact that he held her far from her cut woods.

Dirk walked back to stand in the middle of the rune he drew on the floor, holding the shovel with Bart steadily in his left hand, exhaling quietly. “Here goes.”

Todd watched silently, very nearly holding his breath as Dirk’s features stiffened with concentration. He raised his right hand to his side, as if ready to leap upwards and soar through the roof. Wind grew beneath him, rattling through the floorboards, coming into the room wildly from below Dirk’s feet. It blew through his clothes and hair, not affecting Todd and the others as they stood close by and Bart grew bigger and bigger in a matter of seconds. 

She was like an exploding bomb, suddenly huge and bursting in colours, her eyes big and wide. Her mouth gaped open with sharp teeth and a long tongue of a snake, and Todd was strikingly reminded that she wasn’t just a simple magical being, but a literal demon. Her colours changed quickly and turned more and more vibrant as her flames moved in the wind, Dirk standing still as he held her in front of him, her light reflecting in his eyes.

Bart’s colours danced around the room and the rune at Dirk’s feet began glowing brightly when suddenly loud noises were made and the room felt like it was spinning with them inside it, the Castle seeming to shape itself differently. The ceiling curved up and the walls wiggled, the hole in the Castle rebuilding itself and closing up as if it was never there. 

The whole Castle spun and popped objects out of thin air, all happening in but a few moments. Then, like the quiet after a raging storm, Bart grew smaller and redder as she was just before Dirk picked her from her beloved fireplace. The light of the rune dimmed until it vanished, the paint gone with it. The wind died slowly and Dirk’s feet met with the floor again, Todd not having noticed him ever leaving it. 

It seemed like Dirk was always near floating, like wind constantly blew in his hair. Maybe he wasn’t that much of a person but not quite a wizard either, but more like Todd — a raging fire or flood or  _ wind _ that was caught spiralling inside of a body.

When Todd blinked again, he suddenly noticed how the Castle was completely different than how it was just ten minutes ago. He looked around, pretty sure his mouth was wide open as he took in the drastic change.

Dirk ran his hand through his dark hair after he put Bart back in the same fireplace, and Todd noticed how beads of sweat were formed on his forehead.

“It looks amazing, Dirk!” Farah said, moving from her place to look around the place, Turnip hopping on her tail. “The Castle looks great!”

Todd felt Friedkin’s hand touch his shoulder and looked over to the old man on his side. “Can I touch the fire?” Friedkin asked.

Todd grimaced and stood up, rushing up from his place on the couch to the large window that definitely _ wasn’t _ there before Dirk and Bart’s intervention. It was on the opposite side of the staircase to the door than the kitchen, with a bed below it, which was also non-existent earlier that evening.

He leaned over the window, squinting his eyes in the dark as he tried to take in the new view. It wasn’t Kingsbury nor the port village, but a sight of dark fields and small houses which were far too familiar to Todd’s eyes. He nearly toppled over when black smoke filled his vision in a way he knew too well. 

He was… back home? 

The train whirred loudly, the same sound that accompanied Todd through his all too lonely nights and through his all too lonely days.

He was back home!

“This—” He stuttered. “This is—”

Oh,  _ fuck _ .

Dirk’s hand was on his shoulder for a moment before it roamed to his back and fell down in the space between them, Dirk walking past Todd and bringing his attention to Dirk as he opened a new door in the wall next to them. 

“I added another bathroom,” Dirk explained as he opened the wooden door with a wide smile. “There have been really… growing more of us. A little family!”

Dirk’s face was flushed with blush, and Todd looked at him winded. He felt himself smiling back at Dirk, his own face burning as his words failed him — as they often did.

Dirk’s hand rubbed at his neck before he strolled forwards, steps quick and giddy. “C’mere, Todd!”

Todd followed Dirk to where he stopped in his place, clutching the handle to a door in front of the second staircase which, too, wasn’t there before. 

“I added a proper bedroom, too,” Dirk said, looking at Todd as he pushed the door open.

Todd walked inside, and as he stepped into the room he felt like he was in Dirk’s secret cave again, like he was in his dream. Young. It was his bedroom back home, with the window down to the street, his very same bed and cushions and closet. Everything was the same.

He turned back to Dirk, a frown on his face. “Why—?”  _ How could you possibly know to make this? _

Dirk shifted on his feet, fidgeting nervously at the doorframe. “I thought it would suit you,” he replied. After a pause, he asked Todd, near hesitantly: “Do you like it?”

Todd didn’t even know how to begin explaining what he felt. He missed his old life like crazy, but standing again in his old bedroom just gave him a slap back to his reality. The reason he left his hometown, the reason he left Amanda, how unhappy he was even when he had her by his side and how helpless he felt. 

And how he grew out of it, but the curse remained. Todd could dream of coming back to Amanda, but that was all it had been all along. A dream.

A familiar weight came crushing over his shoulders, and Todd could almost feel himself shutting into himself in front of Dirk’s adoring eyes. 

“Yes,” Todd tried, mouth dry as he looked away from Dirk’s face. “It’s perfect for a house-keeper.”

Todd could feel the atmosphere change in the room after the words left his mouth. He felt bad for silencing Dirk just so, but really, that was all he was. Cursed to turn ninety, still allowed at Dirk and Farah’s side because of how  _ interesting _ the magic cast on him made him.

Dirk coughed at the door, and Todd could particularly feel Dirk’s whole body screaming as he searched for the words to say. Todd was half-certain they were gonna stand there in Todd’s new-but-old bedroom for all eternity.

“I got you knew clothes,” Dirk tried, and Todd found his eyes glued back to him again despite himself. “You could look at them later. Do you want to see the next thing?” 

Todd nodded at Dirk’s slowly regained enthusiasm, eyes drifting to look out the window of his room. It had been so long since the last time he gazed over that very view. 

“I’m taking Mona to town!” Farah called from the door, which was followed by the sound of the Castle’s door shutting behind them. The noise shook Todd back to Dirk, who stood looking at him in the same place he stood before, unmoving.

“Come over, quickly,” Dirk urged him with a small smile. 

Todd followed him to the entrance of the Castle, Dirk pointing with his right hand to the lock of the door. “See these new colours? There are new exits.”

Now the lock didn’t possess a red to Kingsbury or blue to the port. The lock was divided into green, black, yellow and pink. Dirk turned the door colour from yellow to pink and opened it, revealing to Todd an enormous flower field going on for miles and miles.

Dirk turned to Todd on his side who was feeling it very difficult to breathe. “My gift to you, Todd,” Dirk said, gesturing with his hands outside.

Todd didn’t wait for an invitation clearer than that. He stepped outside with faltering steps, Dirk closing the door behind them as Todd gazed over the seemingly never-ending fields, only mountains meeting the horizon with no civilization in sight. Down the hill, a lake streamed through the pink flowers. Somehow, the sun was in the middle of the sky despite it being the middle of the night in the Wastes and in Todd’s hometown. Where  _ were _ they, exactly?

Dirk gave Todd his hand as Todd’s eyes roamed at the sight. “Welcome to my secret garden.”

Todd snickered at him, masking his amazement. “You’re too cheesy for your own good," he said, taking Dirk's hand. "It’s disgusting.”

Dirk cackled at that, grinning sunnily. “So you like it, then.”

Todd’s eyes were wide and his heart felt light and he tried very  _ incredibly _ hard to look unaffected. “Yeah, it’s nice.”  They began walking through the vast field, the sun warm against their skin. “Did you make this with your magic?”

Dirk shrugged at his side. “Only a little, to help the flowers.”

Todd looked away from their view and to Dirk, unguarded and smiling so very sweetly, gazing at Todd as if Todd held all the secrets to the universe. Wasn’t Dirk supposed to be the one who did?

Unknowingly, Todd turned young again. He walked close to the lake’s shore, skipping over it to the other side as he looked around the unimaginable scenery he stood in with the most unimaginable man on the planet. He faced Dirk with a grin, unable to stop the bubbly feeling in his chest. Was that how Dirk felt daily? It was addictive. 

“Thank you,” he said to Dirk, taking his eyes from Dirk’s captivating gaze and to the running water. “It’s like I’m dreaming.”

Dirk crossed the lake to stand by Todd, and Todd wasn’t sure how long he stood there watching the water flow and the flowers sway in the cool breeze. He couldn’t shake the feeling like he had been there before, which was impossible. How could he ever forget being in a place like that?

A part of him said, _ the universe meant for you to be here _ . 

“Todd.”

Todd looked at Dirk, feeling completely overwhelmed. He was always overwhelmed these days —he felt so much after so many years of numbness, but he never thought he had so many emotions stored inside him, or that he’d ever be so overwhelmed with something other than guilt or anger. He never dreamed of being drowned in happiness.

Dirk looked at him like he held his words forcefully in his mouth, trying to keep himself from spilling them out. His face was overcome with emotion, only Todd couldn’t decipher what it was that flashed behind those green eyes.

“You okay?” Todd asked him, reaching his hand out to Dirk’s arm, a gentle touch he would reach to share with Dirk in so many more times to come.

“Yeah,” Dirk breathed out, shaking his head. After clearing his throat, he added, “Come see this.”

They reached the top of the hill they stood on, gazing down on a tiny stone house with a water turbine turning inside the lake waters at its doorstep. 

“Who lives here?” Todd asked. 

“Me, sometimes,” Dirk said. “I spent many summers here when I was young and alone.”

Todd frowned at him, brows furrowing worriedly. “Why alone?” 

“I was told it was my parents, but if they ever lived here, they left no sign they were ever here before me.” Dirk started going down the hill and towards the house, but Todd found himself unable to move from his place. A great sense of dread washed over him as Dirk turned to check on him.

“What’s wrong?” Asked Dirk. 

“I have a bad feeling about this,” Todd admitted, his fists tightening at his sides as Dirk turned to fully face him. Todd looked around, eyes taking in everything in search of what was off. The breeze was slowly growing into a wind. 

“Tell me the truth, Dirk,” Todd began, eyes locking back on Dirk’s. “I don’t care if you think you’re a monster.”

Instead of stiffening or shutting Todd out, Dirk took a few steps up the hill, standing closer to Todd. His eyebrows were furrowed, and he looked more confused and frustrated than Todd hoped to see him. “What do you want me to tell you? I just want you to be happy here, if you choose to stay.” Dirk’s words were becoming more and more frantic as he went on. “You could open a flower shop with all these flowers and buy some instruments to play on. You could go back to playing, and you’d be good, Todd.”

“That’s not what I asked you,” Todd insisted. “What then, I’ll sell these  _ flowers _ and you’ll fade away? Yeah? I want you to be happy, Dirk. For that you need to talk to me!” He found that he stepped close to Dirk without noticing, close enough to be able to count each of the sun-freckles on his face if he wasn’t so worked up. “I won’t be able to do much, God knows I’m not good at anything except being the occasional asshole—”

“It’s not  _ true _ , Todd—” Dirk tried, but Todd cut him off. For the first time, Todd seemed to have more words in store than Dirk did. It wasn’t even that Todd was so set on proving to Dirk how he was wrong and Todd was right, but that he couldn’t help but jump on the opportunity to vent even when this discussion had little to do with what was actually eating Todd up from inside. 

“Dirk, honestly, look at me! I’m no magician, and I’m anxious and awkward, and I’m fucking  _ cursed  _ — but I still want to do the little I can for you, so let me!” 

“It’s not little, Todd!” Dirk looked completely shaken up, speaking frantically as the wind grew stronger. “How can you even say that? You’re with no doubt the bravest man I know, and by God do I lo—”

Todd’s curse resurfaced again, ageing him back to his old self without him noticing. He felt exhaustion settle on him as he couldn’t bring himself to accept Dirk’s words, and tried not to take it into heart the way Dirk’s expression soured as he turned his attention away from Dirk whose words fell silent on his lips.

Todd sighed, low and quiet to himself. “The good thing about being old is that you have little to lose.”

A loud noise was carried into the open field by the wind. Todd opened his mouth to ask Dirk what was going on when something appeared in the clouds, far-away from them, a moving dot flying above the mountains.

Dirk's shoulders fell, their argument forgotten for the moment.  “What is it doing here?” He asked, voice low and serious.

Todd squinted his eyes, trying to understand what it was that hovered up in the sky. “A battleship?”

He could feel Dirk moving closer to him as he spoke. “On its way to burn cities and people.”

“The enemy’s?” Todd asked. “Ours?”

“Does it make a difference?”

Todd watched Dirk as Dirk looked backwards to the direction from which they came from. The sun in Dirk’s dark strands of hair, his long nose and soft skin. Maybe in another life, Todd would’ve reached up and traced Dirk’s cheek with his hand. His fingertips buzzed with longing. God, he was _pathetic._

Todd let his gaze tread after Dirk’s solemn eyes back to the pink stone door so very far away from them, just a small square in the pink ocean of flowers meeting the wide blue skies. Another battleship flew above the closed door to the Castle, much closer to the ground than the one above the mountains. 

“Murderers,” Dirk’s muttered, angry and devastated and dangerous. He would know better than anyone all about the wrongdoings in that great war.

The close battleship flew over their heads and Todd followed it with his gaze, unable to stop his widening eyes when he caught the sight of the hundreds of bombs at the belly of that beast. It moved quickly in the air above them and was already past Dirk’s childhood home — if Todd could even call it that — when Dirk stirred at his side.

Dirk raised his hand with a swift movement to his left side, and the next thing Todd noticed was the wings on the left side of the battleship stopped turning in a creaking malfunction. Even from afar Todd could notice the tiny people, soldiers rushing around the docks trying to fix what was suddenly wrong in their ship. He nearly missed the subtle way in which Dirk brought his hand behind his back, away from Todd’s sight.

“It broke down,” Todd said. “What did you do?”

Dirk shook his head, dismissing Todd’s worry. “It was just tinkering, it won’t crash.”

Todd looked from Dirk’s face and to the arm the wizard was trying to discreetly hide. It was not a winged claw just yet, but grew small feathers on his darkening skin and long dark nails on his hands. His hand shook visibly, and Todd could only assume Dirk was brutally fighting his changing body.

With furrowed eyebrows, Todd’s gaze snapped back to Dirk’s face, but he was looking away — maybe in humiliation, maybe in concentration. “Dirk—”

“Looks like they’re onto us,” Dirk said.

As if on cue, the battleship threw out of its body a dozen black-feathered monsters. It was the first time Todd had seen them, but certainly not Dirk’s. Faceless creatures, with only sharp-teethed open mouthes and scissors or black wings for arms, dark legs like birds of prey. They resembled Dirk’s monstrous form from Priest’s garden and Todd’s dream, only there wasn't anything close to human still left in them.

Dirk breathed out. “Priest’s deputies.”

“The Castle,” Todd ordered.

Wordlessly, Dirk put his hands around Todd, one on his waist and the other holding his hand, both of them shaking near-violently. Both of them were now in the same state Dirk tried to hide from him a moment ago.

They were running, sprinting ahead, the ground under Todd’s feet passing below them in a flash. He could barely feel his feet hit the grass as Dirk grew his feathers and wings in a moment’s notice, not letting go of Todd.

“Run,” He instructed. “Move your legs!”

Was it their destiny, to forever find themselves in each other’s presence only to be chased by faceless enemies and to soar in the air and in each other’s arms?

Dirk took off as Todd kept running on thin air, jaw tight as he felt the adrenaline rush in him and stopped himself from saying anything he might regret a minute later. He could hear Priest’s deputies at their tails, and relief began pumping through his veins at the sight of the nearing pink door.

“Hurry on in,” Dirk said quickly.

“No, don’t stay out here alone!” Todd tried, but Dirk’s claws let go of him before he even heard the end of his sentence. A frustrated scream had escaped Todd's lips, or so he thought — it may as well have been the wind and blood rushing in his ears. He kept running as he fell from the air and somehow managed not to crash but reached the door. 

As he came closer to it in a matter of half a second it opened, letting Todd run right inside the Castle. The door closed itself after him, the colour changing from pink to yellow instantly, Farah entering the Castle right after him.

She stopped in surprise at the doorway, her eyes widening slightly at the sight in front of her. “What happened?”

Todd laid on the first staircase, sprawled on the stairs from his crash inside. His back was hurting like a bitch and his head throbbed in worry for Dirk and for his own goddamn sanity. “I’ve had it with this place,” he groaned.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hey guys! i'm so sorry it took me so long to update, my physics' project is a bitch and my health has been really faltering lately. anyway, your kudos and comments (and my gf) have really reminded me of my love for my fic and so here i am again despite it all !! :))  
> just wanna explain the runes farah and dirk drew in this chapter: farah drew blackwing's symbol for project marzanna and dirk drew project icarus's. let me know what you thought about this update! i hope i'll manage to post the next one soon <3


	8. In Which Todd Finds Further Difficulties Leaving

A few hours later Todd couldn’t ease his raging thoughts. He couldn’t shake off the gut-churning similarity between Priest’s deputies to the monstrosity Dirk so desperately tried to fight in himself.

It was clear to him it didn’t happen to all magicians and so he understood that Priest’s wizards — if he could even call them anything resembling a human — were something different. Like Dirk. With a closer bond to the stream of creation, or whatever that meant.

Did Priest try pushing Dirk over the edge to make him one of his monster deputies throughout his mentoring? Was that what the man tried to pull off that day in the Royal Garden?

Sitting in his new-but-old bedroom, Todd already knew Priest was never a good man. The dim lighting of the candle was not what it took to make him arrive to that conclusion. 

He sat a chair by the large window, his eyes not meeting the familiar view of his hometown as he worked on fixing pieces from the clothes Dirk brought him like he often did with the hats he worked on at home.  He was too jittery to sleep, worry twisting at his gut and itching at his head as he sewed with sweaty palms to pass the time. He couldn’t spot the passage of time as his anxiety grew inside of him.

After he managed to stand up from being smashed into the first staircase of the Castle all those hours ago, he tucked Friedkin in the bed by the window and took a long shower. He couldn’t quite bring himself to talk to Farah or Turnip about what had gone down in the open sunny fields and why Dirk was gone now, and to his great relief, no one was awake when he finally left the bath.

Mostly because he didn’t even know what to say at Farah’s inevitable questions. He was so frustrated he couldn’t do more to help, wasn’t even let by Dirk to stay with him as Dirk stood in danger.

_ God _ . He wanted to do so much more. And not because of the same feeling of duty caused by guilt, driving him to do whatever it takes to take care of Amanda and his mother —  _ otherwise he wouldn’t be worthy of their love _ . It wasn’t a feeling of accountability. He didn’t quite know what it was.

Quietly, the door to his room opened, revealing a tired-looking Farah at his doorstep. He turned his head from the fabric at his hands to the door, his eyes meeting hers.

“Aren’t you supposed to sleep?” He asked her, voice hoarse. 

“Aren’t you?” Farah asked, leaning her shoulder against the doorpost. 

Todd didn’t respond, putting down on the floor his tools and fabric. Her eyes were almost challenging but mostly tired. Maybe Todd was looking too deep into it all. 

Farah’s folded arms fell down by her sides. “Don’t worry about Dirk, okay? Sometimes he goes out for days.”

Her words were as soft as he never heard them, and that only made the lump in his throat grow. He wiped his hands on his trousers, fidgeting just to do anything but focus on their conversation at the moment. “Thanks, Farah.”

He could see her nodding from the side of his eyes, then hesitate as she slowly moved to sit down on his bed. 

Farah cleared her throat quietly, the only sound breaking through Bart’s far-away crackling wood. “How are you doing?”

Todd looked at her again, a short response ready on his lips. When his gaze fell on her it dawned on him how tired Farah actually was, and not solely because of the ridiculously late hour. 

Todd couldn’t bring himself to speak even half a lie and just sighed. He put pressure on his eyes with his palms, bringing out a tired cackle from Farah in front of him.

He looked up with an offended expression as if saying,  _ well, you did ask, _ and Farah’s small smile widened a little. Then it wavered, and Todd waited patiently for her to gather her courage for whatever it was that bugged at the back of her head. As he did, he brought his chair closer to the bed than it was sitting by the window.

“Todd,” she began slowly, “What is it… between you and Dirk?”

Todd might as well get struck by a bolt of lightning. He gaped at her with wide eyes, brows furrowing as he felt his cheeks heat up. He was far too exhausted and far too  _ old  _ to be having that conversation at the moment.

Todd spluttered over his words. “Excuse me?”

Farah just shrugged awkwardly. From feeling like a deer caught in headlights Todd began feeling more defeated than anything. His tense shoulders slumped slowly, another sigh ready at his lips. 

Honestly, he had no idea what to tell Farah. He had no idea what to tell  _ himself _ . He had no idea about pretty much anything — that must be the only thing close-to-be-sure about his life, while everything regarding Dirk was on the opposite side of the spectrum. 

Todd put his face in his hands and felt Farah’s comforting touch tap at his thigh.  “Jesus,” he muttered, more to himself than anything.

“I thought so,” Farah said. 

Todd didn’t even know when it happened, or how, or why. He probably had the universe to blame that for. All he knew was that he didn’t care at all, then all of a sudden he cared too much.

A loud bang was heard, making Todd jolt in his place as he brought his face up from his hands. He looked at Farah whose eyes were clouded with seriousness.

“What is that?” Todd asked, the air around them heavier than it was a second ago. 

“Air raid siren,” Farah offered. 

Todd stood up from his chair and turned around to the window behind him. He leaned over, looking outside through the glass in search of something up in the skies. A bomb, or a wizard. “Air raid?”

“It’s not close by, but better not go out right now.” 

Todd turned back around to face Farah, he wasn’t sure what to say at that. The candlelight flickered on her figure, reflecting in her dark eyes.

“Priest’s creatures are searching for us, aren’t they?” Todd finally asked, though he already knew the answer. “That’s the raid.” 

“Looking high and low,” Farah said. She tipped her head to the side, gesturing to the direction of Todd’s door. “Bart is doing a good job, hiding us like this.”

The next morning Farah left the Castle in disguise along with Mona out of the yellow door and into the town, closing behind her what looked like a front door to an apartment from the outside. 

Her eyes squinted as she clenched her jaw, noticing a carriage coming to a stop in front of the hat shop by the Castle’s secret entrance. She slowed her pace, watching the young woman leaving the carriage and walking right inside the hat shop without hesitation. Right inside  _ Todd’s _ hat shop.

Farah turned back around, walking right inside the Castle again. As she climbed the stairs she let her hood fall from her head, surprising Todd when he turned to face her.

“Back so soon?” He asked, mouth stuffed with toast.

“Some stranger walked inside your shop,” Farah said.

Todd frowned at her. “It’s locked, though,” he explained, as if Farah could miss such an obvious thing as that woman walking away from a closed door.

“Apparently not,” Farah told him. That same moment, a knock on the door was heard.

“Todd?” The voice from the other side of the door called, loud and worrying. 

Farah’s eyes shot to Todd’s horrified face, a striking difference from his slightly confused stance just a moment ago. 

She watched him as he seemed to go through a storm of emotions when finally he straightened his back and walked with fake confidence to the door. Before he even twisted the handle Bart opened the door and it flew open, revealing Amanda standing on the other side, a guitar case on her back. 

She locked eyes with Todd, her right hand still up from where she put it against the door for knocking. Todd found himself frozen to his place, unable to do anything as Amanda — standing _ right there  _ before his eyes, not a ghost or a dream — stared at him, eyes widening and lips parting in shock.

She looked different. Maybe it was her messy ponytail, the bangs that grew longer in the time he wasn’t there by her side, or the blush on her cheeks that he worried so greatly to be missing when he wouldn’t notice. 

Amanda always had a presence wherever she stood, but now Todd felt like he couldn’t breathe. 

“God,” was all he could utter. The sun crept inside the Castle behind Amanda, lighting the edges of her dark hair like molten gold. It felt like years have passed between them.

“Todd!” Amanda called, shaking herself from her initial shock. She rushed the few steps between her and Todd, tackling him into a hug so abruptly they collided with the stone staircase behind Todd. He hardly minded.

Amanda, now laying on Todd looked up at him, fisting his shirt in her grip. “Where have you been, idiot? I’ve been looking everywhere for you!” Her words were angry, tears of frustration going down her cheeks. “And look at you, why are you so  _ old _ ? What the hell happened?”

She leaned back closer, putting her head on Todd’s shoulder, her tears soaking into his shirt. Tears began swelling up in Todd’s eyes as he brought his arms around her, hugging tight enough to bruise, tight enough to mend their bodies into one. 

“I was so worried,” Amanda said quietly, muffled into Todd’s shoulder. Her words spilled in relief and Todd felt a fond smile spread on his face through his silent tears as he shuffled his head closer to her hair.

“Amanda,” Todd breathed out, not knowing what to say to fill in on all the questions heavying her mind. 

Todd felt something bumping into the back of his head and tilted his head back as much as he could in his current position. Mona was on the stair by his head, making an effort in trying to make Amanda and him move from the staircase.

“I’ll explain everything,” Todd said, his heart sinking at his lie. He knew full well that even if he wanted to, Friedkin’s curse prevented it from him. “Let’s get up, alright?”

“Yeah, yeah,” Amanda sniffed, getting up from Todd. She ran the back of her hand over her cheek, wiping away the tears messily as she gave Todd her free hand to help him get up. He took it, getting up to his feet. 

He could feel her eyes bore into him as they walked up the stairs and practically heard her roaring questions at Mona the dog, at Farah standing shocked with her robe still on, at the massive change in his apartment.

“You’re — holding a guitar?” Todd asked, frowning in confusion. Amanda didn’t even know how to play the guitar.

Amanda’s brows jumped as if she completely forgot about the black guitar case on her back. “Yeah, it’s yours. I just — brought it with me, thinking I’d leave it in the shop or something.” She took it off and put it on the floor, unzipping it open. Inside was his old guitar, the white bass he never took from their parents’ home. “Mom’s cleaning out the garage, I couldn’t let her throw it out.”

“Oh,” Todd said, throat dry suddenly. God, how much he missed Amanda. They had so many memories with this bass and the old drumset. He coughed a little, an attempt at normalcy before it all went to shit. “Do you want coffee?”

Amanda made an acknowledging noise as he went towards the kettle, watching her as she walked around the first floor. Farah caught his gaze, looking at him with raised eyebrows and wide eyes.

He tried to pull off his best  _ I got this, don’t worry _ face he could manage and apparently satisfied her enough because the response he got was a silent sigh and a shake of the head. 

“I barely recognize this place,” Amanda said, breaking Todd and Farah’s silent communication. She gestured with her hand to Friedkin sleeping at the chair at Bart’s fireplace, Mona resting at his feet. “Who’s this dude?”

Todd opened his mouth, not even certain what he was to respond when Amanda spoke up again. “Oh, your landlord, right,” she said with an almost nervous cackle. She fully faced Todd now with a growing grin, taking a few steps towards him. “Bro, you wouldn’t believe the promotion I got! It’s enough for us to move in together! You could stop your hattering and do something for yourself.”

“I’m happy here, Amanda,” Todd said. 

Amanda’s smile dropped, now replaced by a deep frown. “I’m not so sure you are, Todd,” she replied. “And where have you been for so long? Who is this dude?”

She gestured at Farah, who looked at her with an almost offended explanation. “I’m Farah,” Farah said, folding her arms over her chest.

“And that clears it all up,” Amanda replied, looking back to Todd with raised eyebrows. 

“I don’t even know where to start,” Todd breathed out, close to a sigh. Amanda just looked back at him silently, waiting for him to say something, anything. 

Todd decided to muster his courage to bring down the wall between them. He had to start somewhere. “Well, that’s not — he’s not my landlord. It’s, uh, the Wizard of the Waste.”

Amanda’s head snapped back so quickly Todd was afraid she’d break it. “ _ What _ ?”

“More specifically he  _ was _ ,” Farah offered. 

“Let’s sit down,” Todd said quickly, pulling up a chair by the dining table and motioning for Amanda to do the same. She dropped her purse by the fireplace and followed, sitting down on the chair beside him confused and bewildered.

On the chair by the fireplace, Friedkin stirred awake. He noticed the purse on the floor and stretched his arm to take it in his hands. Todd and Amanda didn’t notice his movement and neither did Farah as she went up the stairs, only Mona watching him as he slowly opened the small bag by the guitar.

The moment the purse was fully open, with Amanda and Todd’s voices hanging in the air and filling the Castle, something black and small resembling a slug jolted out of the purse. Friedkin caught it swiftly in his fist.

“A Peeping Bug, huh?” He murmured to himself, a small smile twitching at his wrinkled face. “Priest really is using the oldest tricks in the book.”

Without missing a beat, Friedkin threw the creature right at Bart’s ready and open mouth. She burped after swallowing it, causing a stinking cloud of smoke.

A part of Todd worried that when he’ll finally show up again, Amanda wouldn’t forgive him for leaving. Sitting in front of her now, in the Castle that had somehow become his home, he understood how much she grew without him noticing. 

She didn’t need him to take care of her. She loved him so, so much even when he didn’t take care of her. He felt great tension leave his body at that revelation.

He wasn’t afraid to tell her of everything — as much as he physically could. Of how he came to meet Farah and Dirk, how he stayed with them and about Turnip and the King. She listened eagerly, her face falling when he told her he had no idea how to go back to his young self.

“Okay,” she said, frowning deeply. “We — we can handle this.” Her eyes met Todd’s, warm brown and familiar. He could see her biting the inside of her cheek before continuing. “If you let me.”

Todd smiled weakly at her. Soon after, night fell on the town and Amanda had to go home. She had a shift the upcoming morning — getting promoted and all — and Todd had forced his reluctant sister to leave despite her protest and called a carriage for her.

“I’m not leaving again, I’ll be right here,” Todd promised her, a new sense of ease washing over him. God, how he missed her. 

“You better,” Amanda said, something between a scold and a question. “Take care, Todd. And talk to me. You’re only alone in this if you let yourself be so.”

“I know,” Todd nodded. “Thank you.”

“It’s nothing,” she dismissed. Picking up her purse from the floor, she turned to him again. “Say, where’s Wizard Gently now? Doesn’t he live with you too?”

“ _ Dirk _ is—” Todd began, not really sure what to say. “Well, I don’t know. It’s frustrating.” 

“I’m sorry,” Amanda said, squeezing his shoulder fondly. “I love you, dude.”

“Love you too,” Todd said back, smiling at her tiredly as she left for her ride. Todd stood at the Castle’s doorstep long after Amanda’s carriage had left his sight, staring ahead as Farah joined his side. 

He acknowledged her presence with a hum and remained in his posture of folded arms and back leaning against the doorpost while the two of them watched the people empty the streets, rushing into every direction with heir belongings.

“Look at this, everyone is running away from here,” Todd said, speaking up and breaking the silence stretching between them. “Soon this place will be empty.”

“Do you want to leave too?” Farah asked him, quiet and sincere.

Todd tilted his head to look at her, only to find her eyes fixed ahead as she wouldn’t meet his eyes.

“What?” Todd asked her, unsure if he heard correctly.

“That’s what your sister talked about,” Farah said, almost defensively. “When she came here.”

“I’m glad I got to see her again,” Todd said, moving his balance from the doorpost behind him to his legs. “It went so much better than I thought.”

Farah’s gaze finally met Todd’s, her expression unreadable. “You didn’t answer my question.”

“I’m not going to leave,” Todd said firmly. He smiled at Farah, shaking his head. “How could I?”

“But she’s your sister,” Farah insisted. 

“Yeah,” Todd said, “And she’s not going anywhere now.”

Farah fell quiet beside him, her eyes turning back to the streets. He wondered what Farah would have done if her brother offered her to come with him. Todd bumped their shoulders together, smile widening when she cackled at his antics. 

“And anyway,” Todd began fondly, “You’re my family too now.”

She tried to stifle her grin and failed. “Good,” she nodded.

Todd laughed, his relief ringing in the empty streets.

Sitting on the sofa after cleaning up dinner, Friedkin was trying to read the newspaper to the bored Farah as Todd tried to get Bart to burn regularly. 

Todd absently noticed how, slowly, Friedkin regained his speech and movement as if he learnt how to be human again.

“But the papers say we won,” he said slowly to comment on Farah’s irritation. 

“You shouldn’t swallow those lies,” Farah replied curtly.

No matter how hard or frequent Todd used the air-blower in his hands, only smoke came out of the fireplace. There were fresh woods in it, but Bart didn’t respond. 

“God, Bart stinks,” Todd muttered. “Could you open a window, Farah?”

Farah was just rising to her feet when Friedkin said; “I wouldn’t do that. In Bart’s state, she couldn’t possibly keep them out.”

Todd didn’t have the spare second to ask himself who were  _ ‘them’ _ when the whole Castle shook. The light went out abruptly before coming back and Todd tripped his way to the large window by Friedkin’s bed, nearly falling on his face. 

The sky rained bombs like raindrops, explosions being seen everywhere in his view as houses blew up. The floor shook below his feet as Farah rushed down the staircase to the Castle’s door out to the town and Todd followed her way.

Looking up, Todd saw a battleship passing overhead. The strong wind blew ashes and sparks in. Todd put his hand over Farah’s shoulder, drawing her attention to him. 

“I’ll check on the shop,” he said, rushing to the back door of his hat shop before she could respond. He ran, feet barely meeting the ground as he crossed the shop to the front door, watching through the glass doors out to the street. The buildings were burning up in violent flames, but everything was silent besides the far-away bombings — no people screamed. Perhaps there were no people around to scream.

Todd was young again. 

Leaning against the door from the darkness of the shop, his attention turned to the direction from which came a dragging sound. He was met with the sight of blobs resembling Friedkin’s minions, but these in front of him carried themselves easily and were dressed in the green uniform of the royal guards. 

Priest’s deputies, in the closest form to the persons they once were? They were in no doubt sent on Priest's behalf, no matter who they used to be. 

Todd’s palms pressed flat on the locked glass doors as he fought to prevent himself from launching towards Priest's creatures. Rage — or perhaps pure adrenaline — rushed through his body as the blobs came closer to the shop.

Todd gritted his teeth in a scowl. How dare Priest send them  _ now _ ? He had that much energy to spare, and still, the fires were raging around town by the enemy’s wish.

He knew he couldn’t fight them with his bare fists. He took a step back when the door began crackling and rumbles reached him from the other side as Priest’s creatures began rattling the locked door. Todd knew he didn’t have much time and ran as fast as he could to the back exit of the shop and back to the Castle, not noticing it when he knocked over a jug with fresh flowers in it. It fell to the floor behind him, breaking into a dozen ceramic pieces.

In the alleyway between the back of the shop and the entrance to the Castle Todd halted to a stop, cranking his neck as he looked straight up to another battleship above his head. 

It flew slowly in the sky, looming like a predator reaching out to clutch their fingers around his neck. His breath caught in his throat as the belly of the ship opened and it released a few bombs and the sound of the blobs throwing havoc in the hat shop reached his ears.

The bombs fell all around the town and the horrible noises of buildings crashing and lighting up filled the night. Through the burning red skies, Todd saw a figure on one of the bombs falling down to the direction of the Castle hidden as his apartment. As it came closer and closer, Todd made it out to be Dirk, the bomb his size as they dropped. 

Dirk’s legs and arms have already transformed, but his face and hair were as human as they were that morning. He wasn’t as gone as Todd had feared to find him — as gone as he was in Todd’s nightmare. 

“Dirk!” Todd called, not because it could possibly help but because he was frightened because he thought it was the end, because he wanted to remember his adoration for the man and not the grief of the ruined world around them.

A bomb fell on one of the buildings down the street and Todd was thrown against the wall of the alleyway like a ragdoll from the blast. His ears rang and all he heard was the deafening white noise in his head.

Todd’s head was spinning and he frowned deeply as his sight came back to him, and squinting his eyes he was met with the bomb already crashed into the road, but has not exploded despite meeting the ground.

There were as much as feathers in the air around him as there were dust and ashes. Dirk was still clutching onto the bomb, a panting dark feathered body. He lifted his head up and Todd couldn’t help but notice the bruising on his face and the dirt on his feathers.

The ringing in his ears slowly died so Todd could hear his heavy breaths. He leaped from his place despite his heavy limbs, running clumsily to Dirk in relief and gratitude.

“Dirk!” Todd breathed out, throwing his arms around Dirk’s shoulders and into his tired embrace. Dirk hugged him back tightly, and the comfort of Dirk’s body against his was enough to send a wave of contentment to wash over him.

“Todd,” Dirk said. He spoke his name like it was a safe word, like it meant so much more than those four letters could portray. A blessing, or a confession, or a prayer. His voice was a little choked. “I’m sorry. I had too many enemies tonight.”

Todd leaned back from his place in the crook of Dirk’s neck, looking at him with furrowed eyebrows. Dirk’s face broke into an apologetic smile, his bottom lip splintered and bleeding. His green eyes were like the stars above their heads.

“You idiot,” Todd muttered, heart swollen. Dirk broke into a breathy chuckle, pulling him back in.

The shop’s back door was thrown out of its place. Todd turned away from Dirk and to the back of his shop to see it cast aside against the opposite wall of the alleyway, a dark slimy chunk moving from inside the hat shop and outside through the broken doorway. It was huge and slowly morphed into the blob figures, their green uniforms now torn.

In a swift movement, Todd was tucked under Dirk’s arm — wing. His feet left the bomb, Dirk flying them inside the Castle and up the stairs in a single breath. Behind them the blobs entered the Castle but were blown back outside by a strong wave of wind, the door closing shut behind Dirk and Todd and clicking as the lock closed.

“Dirk, Todd!” Called Farah, rushing towards the top of the stone stairs, where Todd stood winded, Dirk already making his way to the fireplace. Todd nearly missed the way her eyes widened, not at Dirk’s state, but at Todd’s. It was the first time she ever saw him without his curse, but he had no idea what was wrong to have him receive that confused gaze.

Dirk put his clawed hand over the fireplace, summoning Bart, only she came up as a stinking dark cloud of smoke. “Be strong, Bart,” Dirk murmured, and the smoke was gone, a brownish-grey looking Bart emerging from it, slowly returning red.

Bart burped another bit of smoke, and then the vibrant red colour was back in her flames, turning back to a shape of a flame rather than a rock. 

Dirk turned from her, still frowning, to face Friedkin who sat on the couch, petting Mona’s back contently. “Hugo, was that a gift from Priest?”

“The idiot fed me something nasty,” Bart said, voice hoarse and throaty.

Friedkin’s eyes sparkled with curiosity, intrigued by Dirk’s stern glare. “Why, if this isn’t Icarus.”

Dirk’s jaw tightened, visible in Todd’s eyes. “We don’t have the time for this.” He turned from the old man, accepting he wouldn’t get a coherent response. He stepped towards Todd again, clutching his shoulders without the tension in his entire posture. “Stay here, Todd. Bart will protect you.”

Dirk then made a step to pass Todd, over down the stairs, towards the blobs and bombs and fiery skies.

“Wait, Dirk!” Todd called, rushing after him down the stairs. “Don’t go by yourself. Looked how that turned out every time you did it! Let me help you. You can’t just ask me to stay.”

Dirk turned to face him, the finality of his face crumbling under worry and exhaustion. “Another round of bombs is coming,” he said, eyebrows dropping a little. “Even Bart couldn’t stop those, and I won’t let you put yourself in the face of danger again.”

“Then let’s run away,” Todd offered quickly, urgently. “You can’t go and fight by yourself.”

“I’m not running away anymore. I’ve finally found something I’m willing to protect.” 

And with that, the Castle’s door opened and Dirk was gone. Todd ran outside after him, but the feathers slipped away from him, taking Dirk far away.

“Dirk!” He called, but the other man was already flying high and far. He stood there, watching Dirk soar up and up until he noticed the wet sound of the blobs morphing their forms again by the shop, shaken out of his worry. He rushed back inside the Castle, locking the door behind him.

Outside, the world burned. Dirk flew through red skies and battleships, the land destroyed — a ruin below him, fire all around him. Priest’s minions and soldiers roamed in every corner, trying to burst inside the Castle on the other way of the door. Silently, Todd stood on the other side, shifting the colour to green.

Todd opened the door and stepped out to the dark night and cold rain of the Wastes, running towards the closest cliff, his eyes catching the dark red clouds on the horizon from where the bombs came crashing on his very town. He could find Dirk in the sky, a flash of black in the burning red and orange. 

He didn’t see what Dirk was doing until the large battleship above the town burnt, a ball of fire, crashing down towards the earth, then everything went dark. Terror coursed through Todd’s body.

“Todd!” Farah urged him from the doorstep, Turnip on her side. 

Todd turned to look at the darkness again, the blanket covering his hometown, shielding it from the stars in large clouds of smoke and ash. He ran back into the Castle, limbs tight with adrenaline, not old age.

“ _ Move _ ?” Bart asked incredulously. “You’re nuts. There’s nothing there.”

“No, you’re wrong,” Todd insisted. “And anyway, as long as we stay here Dirk will keep on fighting. He’s better off a coward.” He helped Friedkin stand up slowly from the coach.

“Priest will find us straight away,” Bart said.

“He already has. At this rate, Dirk will never make it out alive.”

Farah ran back inside the Castle with Turnip, a deep frown on her face. “This isn’t a good idea, Todd. The Castle will fall apart!”

“It’ll be alright. Farah, take Friedkin,” Todd instructed, turning to Bart with the metal shovel as soon as Farah took Friedkin’s hand from his. “Right now, hop up.”

“I can’t!” Bart said. “My contract says I can’t leave the fireplace.”

“If you and Dirk can’t solve this, I’ll do it for you,” Todd said through gritted teeth, forcibly shoving the shovel underneath Bart, taking her up with some coal, quickly making his way away from the fireplace.

“Cut it out! Cut it out!” Urged Bart, panic thick in her voice as Todd reached the stairs where Farah helped Friedkin down, the woman sending Todd another unsure look. “If I leave the Castle everything will collapse.”

“Fine with me.” Todd trod down the stairs with cautious steps, holding Bart at an arm’s length. 

“I better go out last,” Bart said, “Even I don’t know what’ll happen.”

Todd shifted them and walked backwards, stepping out of the doorstep. The moment the metal fire left the doorway, it was as if a black hole sparked inside the Castle and sucked into it the insides of it, unyielding wind blowing around them, and all the magic holding the Castle was gone. The inside crashed into itself as everything fell apart, the power that held every piece together no longer there.

“I told you it’ll collapse,” Bart said, bringing her firey arms over her head to shield herself from the drops of water. “Rain!”

Now all they had to do was get back to town and show Dirk that they were out of danger. Friedkin couldn’t track them like that and the fight in the town was over, so now they could all leave. Then something rattled in the clouds above them, flying in the sky close to the ground enough for them to notice despite the smoke clouding the vision.

“It’s heading towards the town,” Farah said, rain dripping over her face and in her dark hair. 

“I can’t stay out here,” Bart told Todd, a sizzling sound coming out of her every time a drop hit her.

Todd’s eyebrows furrowed as he looked from the direction of the town back to Bart, then to Farah’s eyes.

“We need to bring Bart back in,” Farah said, which Todd knew, but he was too exasperated to admit for he was the one suggesting to fabulously ruining it.

Well, at least Priest couldn’t track their magic anymore. “Okay. Okay. Turnip, help us find a way back in! Farah, you stay here with Friedkin.”

Mona circled around Farah’s legs, jittery steps of frustration as Turnip lead Todd and Bart’s way. After a few moments, Todd called to Farah, having found a big enough space for them to hide from the rain while not risking getting crushed under the ruins.

“There are more battleships making their way to the town,” Farah told him when she joined him in the ruined first floor.

“The roof’s leaking. I’ll go out,” Bart said.

Todd put the shovel on the remainings of the stone fireplace. “Wait here.” He ran to the wrecked cupboard and tore out a few shelves, bringing them for Bart to burn. 

“Ugh, too damp,” whined Bart, but took nonetheless. 

Todd ignored the complaints and looked around for more wooden potential for Bart as Mona passed Bart a piece of wood to munch over. Farah put a wooden chair by the fireplace.

“I’m telling you, now the Castle’s ruined, but if we stayed put Dirk and I could’ve handled it,” Bart said.

Todd threw more wood on Bart, a lot of it, and she instantly grew two times bigger. “Bart, please. We need to go to Dirk. You need to move the Castle.”

“But there’s no chimney here, and the wood’s damp—”

“You can definitely do it, Bart, there’s no demon out there stronger than you,” Todd said, leaning beside her fire, praying it’ll work.

“We have no other choice,” joined him Farah.

“You’re so pretty, Bart…” Slurred Friedkin.

“Then give me something of yours, Todd,” Bart said in finality. 

_ What? _ “Mine?”

“I can’t do it alone. How about your eyes?” She asked, excitement in her voice. Todd could almost feel Farah still behind him. “Such a clear blue.” 

“My eyes?” Todd asked, frowning. An idea came to his mind, knowing what demons needed had to be meaningful. He stood up and scanned the floor with his eyes until they caught his old bass, splintered and probably out of tune, but his still. He took it in his hand and rushed back to the fireplace. “How about this?”

Bart opened her mouth to protest, or perhaps mock him, when her she stilled and a quiet hum filled the room as Bart absorbed the years upon years Todd’s guitar spent at his side. Without saying anything more, Bart took it from Todd’s arms and opened her mouth, slowly putting it into her mouth until the entire instrument was gone.

There was one silent moment with no humming or cracking of fire, only the rain dripping inside, then Bart exploded in pitch black, radiating a silver halo before blowing up red and bright, so huge it was as if she engulfed the whole room. Her colour wasn’t firey red, but a dark shade of blood.

Todd, Farah and Friedkin watched in amazement as Bart lifted the roof of the ruins, the rainy wind blowing around them but not disturbing the demon as she restored what she could of the Castle. Todd heard parts of it falling off the Castle and not coming back on it as they were before, but still the Castle rose again on its feet, even if about a quarter of its original size. Some floorboards next to them broke and fell to the field beneath them, yet they walked on, and Todd watched from the hole in the floor over the passing grounds as Bart raged behind him. Turnip was jumping up and down, Mona barking excessively.

Bart turned back to face the demon, a smile of relief breaking over his features. “Bart, you’re amazing!”

Bart looked too smug for her own good, but no one could really blame her. “Imagine what I could do with your eyes or your heart.”

“Heart!” Called Friedkin suddenly. “Have you got a heart?” His gaze fell on the fireplace, recognizing the source of the flames against the stone immediately. “Oh, my.”

Very quickly they made their way closer and closer to the burning town. Farah was looking up the sky when she pulled Todd to stand next to her and look up as well. His eyes fell on the strange sight above the town, suddenly realizing it was a circle of monsters up in the sky. 

Monsters, wizards, whatever they were. 

“There’s Dirk,” he said quietly. “He’s trapped.”

Lightning coursed through the sky, thunder shaking the castle and the ground and Todd’s heart.

“Hurry, Bart!” Farah called.

Todd’s eyes were fixed up when Farah turned at his side, too lost in thought to notice Bart’s cry, only shaken up at Farah’s frightened: “Friedkin, no!”

She rushed from his side and Todd turned around, horrified to see Friedkin’s hands gripping inside Bart’s flames, the demon no longer burning the wood. 

“Stop it!” Todd called, joining Farah at Friedkin’s side, trying to stop him from whatever it is he was doing. He noticed Friedkin wasn’t just grabbing the flames, his hands fisted something black, like a small rock inside of Bart.

“Icarus’s heart,” Friedkin cried out.

Bart was going feral, burning colourful and out of control, scorching their skins with her heat. “Cut it out!”

The Castle stumbled, halting and falling where it walked, and before they noticed they tumbled over and fell down a hill or a mountain or a cliff. Friedkin fell against the wall that now turned to be the floor, still clutching onto Bart in his hands, Farah and Todd’s hands trying to force him to let his grip loose.

“Friedkin!” Todd demanded. It was hard for Todd to see clearly what was going on with Friedkin until Bart’s flames engulfed him, the ends of his clothes lighting up. “It’s hot, hot!”

“Let go!” Farah urged. “You’ll die, Hugo!”

“No, it’s mine!”

The Castle was almost vibrating on the ground and Todd had a worrying realization that they were treading on the edge of the mountain. He stumbled back, coal on his face, and took a bucket of water with a defiant move. Friedkin’s skin was turning an ugly shade of burnt flesh and the smell was horrible. Todd poured the water over Friedkin, and the fire went out. The only remains of Bart were tiny blue flames poking through Friedkin’s fingers, like strange worms. 

Todd heaved, catching his breath. Then the Castle made an awful sound before the floor beneath them split in two, Todd left alone on one side while Farah, Friedkin, Turnip and Mona were on the other. 

Farah called his name but he couldn’t hear it over the loud noises of the Castle falling apart underneath their feet, only saw her lips moving, and barely managed to catch Mona in his arms as she leapt over to him before the floor beneath their feet fell down the cliff.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> oh gosh it has been three months and im so sorry!! i took all my final exams in school and some virtually but I'm glad I finally managed to finish it! I'm already working on the last chapter and I hope someone's still reading my work and enjoying it :)) stay safe y'all and stay healthy! <3


	9. In Which Todd Finds His Heart

Todd’s head throbbed like he took a grand punch to the face and passed out cold. His body curled on the ground before he struggled to sit up, holding his head in his hands as he breathed out a groan. He could hear someone struggling next to him when he remembered it was Mona, still a corgi, waddling around in the ruins of their broken transport.

He snickered as he opened his eyes, fairly certain his head was about to blow up, as he slowly remembered what happened right before the fall. Friedkin catching Bart and Dirk’s heart, Bart  _ dying _ ? Dirk stuck with all the other wizards in the sky, Farah alone with Friedkin and Turnip possibly falling down a cliff of their own, himself alone with Mona and no idea what to do next.

The walls of the cliff around them were high stone and the remainings of the Castle on which Todd and Mona stood were completely wrecked. Mona barked at him once, twice, just enough for him to look at her from the ruins, tears brimming in his eyes and teeth gritted, jaw clenched tight. 

“God, Mona, look what I’ve done. I poured water on Bart.” He could feel the tears falling on his cheeks, not even minding it anymore — yet another thing he lost control over. “What if I’ve killed Dirk too?”

Mona watched him as he brought his hands to his face, shoulders shaking as he cried helplessly. The sun was soon to rise.

She noticed his ring then, the one Dirk had given him on the day he met her at the Palace. It glowed in vibrant blue light, a contrast to its original red hue, then like a compass showed the way to somewhere behind Mona. She began barking loudly, trying to shake Todd from his sorry state. It was gone shortly later and her barks became more pressed until she turned back human, feeling the familiar shift of her limbs and skin as she turned into a woman.

She put her hands on Todd’s shoulders, the feeling of his body under her touch new to her, as she only ever felt it against her other forms. “Your ring, Todd! Look at it!”

Todd dropped his hands, surprised by Mona’s appearance more than her order. He looked down to the ring with red eyes, finding that the gemstone on it was no longer a ruby but a cold sapphire, glimmering on his finger. 

“It’s moving,” he said, unbelieving. “Is — Is Dirk alive? Show me where he is.” 

The thin light appeared again, wavering, but still there.

“It’s the universe showing the way,” Mona told him. “Everything is interconnected.”

Todd looked back to the ring, then went towards where the light was guiding him. It pointed to a part of the torn shield of the Castle, now discarded against the stone, and Mona helped him move it around until they revealed the door of the Castle behind it.

It wasn’t connected to anything, merely leaning against the wall of the cliff. Todd clutched the doorknob and opened the door, finding the other end pitch black. The ring pointed directly into the darkness. Wind blew from the other side of the door and Todd shot Mona a glance to where she stood determined by his side. 

She gave him a nod and Todd looked back inside wordlessly, trying to press his hand inside the pitch darkness. It looked like he put his hand through dark waters, bits of his skin turning darker against the strange atmosphere on the other side of the door.

“Tread carefully,” Mona said.

Todd’s head turned back to Mona, his hand dropping at his side. “You’re not coming with?”

“You need to do this by yourself,” Mona replied. “I’ll find the others.”

Todd didn’t wait any longer. He took a deep breath and stepped inside the door until the darkness enveloped him, making his way as he felt like floating. His feet made no sound as he walked in the direction the light pointed to, eventually reaching a drained blue-coloured room, with stone walls and plain objects all around. 

On the table in the middle of it were scattered books and a few pages with feathered pens leaning against them, cups of ink placed all around. The whole place seemed abandoned and Todd leaned over the papers, recognizing the handwriting. Then the light from his ring dropped, only shimmering around his finger, no longer pointing in any direction.

On his way outside, Todd passed the mirror next to the door. His heart stopped momentarily in his chest, mouth falling open at the sight in front of him. Reflecting right back at him was himself, just before the curse Friedkin threw upon him. He was back again as himself, no longer crouching and withering and old.

Todd looked down to his hands, finding them unwrinkled, just as young as the face looking back at him through the mirror was. Okay.  _ Okay. _ That was… something. But it wasn’t the most important thing at the moment.

Todd opened the room’s door and stepped outside, finding himself standing on the doorstep of the house down the hill that Dirk showed him by the lake, hills and hills of grass around him, lacking the pink flowers that were there when Dirk took him through the pink door. 

It was night outside the house and the only light source was the falling stars from the sky like drops of diamonds until they hit the ground on the horizon, bursting in a glow of bright white.  Something lit up behind Todd like a beacon and he turned from where he was looking, towards the direction where the Castle’s pink door was supposed to be, his gaze now following a falling star very close to him. He had to shield his eyes with his hand from the brightness of the sight as the star went over his head until it met the ground not far from him.

His finger stung as the ring began to disappear painfully, now a thin line of silver tight around his skin. In the blast of white when the star collided the earth Todd saw a small figure walk towards where the star fell, catching a glimpse of pale skin and dark hair.

Was that a memory of sorts, or a glimpse back in time? It was Dirk’s house and the fields he showed Todd, and that figure could only be a younger version of Dirk: even with softer features and shorter limbs — for Todd would recognize him everywhere, even at the end of time, even on the edge of madness.

More stars kept dropping to the earth, and even from afar Todd felt like he was standing right at Dirk’s side — he looked so young, barely sixteen, eyes wide and no lines of worry inked to his features. 

Todd thought of the day at the Royal Garden, with the stars growing ethereal bodies and dancing in a circle around them, Dirk forced to turn in front of Todd — and Todd understood immediately what it meant. Or, rather, what he was seeing now  _ could  _ mean. He ran from the house towards Dirk as fast as he could, sprinting on mud and ground empty of flowers. 

Next to him, a star fell on the lake waters, and after a small blast grew limbs and ran onwards on the water until it sank underneath its surface. Everything was lit up as stars kept falling all around Todd, distracting him with momentary blindness, until he spotted Dirk: not for away from him, reaching out his hands as a star collided with him straight in his chest.

Instead of a white blast, it was like fireworks erupted from Dirk. Todd watched, running still, as Dirk’s hands went to hold what hit him and looked at it again, white light coming from what he held while he himself was shimmering with a red halo, striking against the white beacons and dark night.

Todd was both horrified and mesmerized when Dirk brought the star in his hands to his mouth and swallowed. Then all the light around him went out, leaving him in darkness.

Todd was still close enough to see him as Dirk stood still for a moment, his palms still against his lips and his eyes closed in concentration. Then it was as if something hit Dirk and he stumbled over, his hands flying to clutch at his chest and his calm face frowning in great pain. Then out of his chest and back into his hands came a fire, a fist-sized flame holding something black inside, like coal. Realization dawned on Todd when the fire opened its eyes that it was Bart, holding onto Dirk’s heart inside of her.

Todd didn’t even notice it when the ring on his finger completely disappeared. The ground opened under him suddenly and he struggled to keep himself up.

“Dirk!” Todd called out desperately. 

He watched Dirk as he held Bart in his hands and the scenery faded to black below Todd, spreading through the memory — Dirk’s memory — and forcing him out. 

Young Dirk looked his way, holding Bart in his hands, familiar eyes wide. 

“It’s Todd!” Todd shouted, wind rushing in his ears from where it erupted below him. “Wait for me! I promise I’ll come back to you!”

Dirk and Bart stared at him, stunned, their face like a work in watercolour, washing away. Todd could barely see anything around them anymore. “Wait for me in the future!”

He was falling with no control through the black, not knowing where was up and down until the pitch-black clouds cleared and he saw an ocean and green trees and grass and he was definitely  _ somewhere _ , falling towards it as fast as the stars came down in Dirk’s memory.

Eventually, Todd felt himself straighten upright and tried walking, treading his steps in the air like Dirk taught him. He walked in the sky, frightened to his core and fearful tears prickling in his eyes. He wiped them angrily, determined to continue.

Bart had Dirk’s heart. Todd knew that already, so why did Dirk show him that memory? Was he supposed to understand from it that now Dirk was dead too if Bart died at Todd’s hand?

Or did it mean that if Bart was still alive there was a way to bring Dirk back the innocence he lost when he sealed the deal with Bart? That it would save him from a similar fate to Priest’s minions?

He ran on the dark red clouds until the world faded to blackness again, and then he reached the doorstep which he went through, and he was back at his own world.

His feet met the solid stone ground and a gasp left Todd at the sight in front of him, so stunned he hardly noticed the door behind him vanishing.

Dirk stood, the same monstrous form he took at Todd’s nightmare. His face was hidden by his feathers and he was huge, breathing heavily, no limbs or human-resembling parts in Todd’s sight.  _ But he was alive. _

Todd stepped forward, knees weak, and held his gaze on Dirk — if he was even still in there. “Dirk,” he said, willing his voice to remain steady despite his hammering heart. 

He brought his hands to where Dirk’s face was ought to be, fingers itching to touch as he moved his hand to clear the dark feathers to reveal Dirk’s sickly pale face, green eyes staring right ahead, unfocused. There was blood trickling down his forehead, his features sharp and bird-like.

_ He could still do this.  _ He just had to find Bart, and then bring her back to Dirk. He had to try, at least. Despite the anxiety clutching at his guts, Todd didn’t let it take hold of him.

“I’m sorry it took me so long,” Todd continued quietly, his heart constricting painfully in his chest. He stood up on his toes, his eyes searching for any sign of  _ Dirk _ in the stoic face in front of him. He closed his eyes, kissing Dirk’s cheek, just over the side of his mouth, the skin beneath his lips cold and unmoving. “Take me to Bart.”

Wordlessly, Dirk spread his large wings and Todd stepped on his enormous clawed leg. With one strong move, they took off, the sun rising in the sky as they flew. Todd looked at his hands as he held onto Dirk’s leg, heart pulsing at the absence of wrinkles and old skin. He was really back.

They eventually reached the remaining of the Castle, stumbling legs and a few wooden pieces holding the remaining bits of the floor together. Turnip’s smile was gone as Todd’s eyes fell on her, his shoulders releasing some of their tension when he saw Farah, Friedkin and human-Mona unharmed. 

They landed fairly safely and Todd got off Dirk’s claw, the beast immediately collapsing on the weary floor and shaking the whole fumbling mess with him. The feathers tore from him and flew with the wind and when the dark cloud of feathers left it revealed an unconscious Dirk laying on the wood. Todd leaned by his side, turning Dirk’s body so he wasn’t face-first to the floor but laid on his back. 

Todd moved Dirk’s dark hair from his eyes, the feel of dried blood at his fingers. Dirk’s mouth was slightly open and Todd brought his hands from Dirk’s face to his own knees, trying to stop himself from touching him any more than he just did.

Farah was on his side in a flash, her eyes exhausted yet movement still as sharp as ever. “Is he dead?”

“He’s fine,” Todd said, not really knowing what else he could provide. He stood up and made his way to Friedkin who sat far from them and watched the scene unfold, his hands cupped as he held the struggling Bart in his grip.

As Todd figured, she was still alive. She was but a dying blue flame, but she was there.

“Don’t look at me like that,” Friedkin croaked, throaty and raw. “I didn’t do anything.”

Todd sighed, his eyebrows furrowed desperately. “Please, Friedkin,” he pleaded, crouching next to the man.

Friedkin’s eyes met his, looking tired and lonely and as spent as Todd felt. “You want it that bad?” He asked quietly.

“It’s not for me, Hugo,” Todd explained, “It’s Dirk’s.”

“You’d better take care of it,” Friedkin said, almost as a threat, but Todd knew it wasn’t one. 

Friedkin watched him with big eyes, waiting for a confirmation, and Todd nodded at him. Then Friedkin motioned with his hands to Todd, and Todd cupped his own.

“Here,” Friedkin murmured.

Bart was a chill tickle against his palms and fingers, ghostly and barely noticeable. Todd looked back to Friedkin before getting up, giving him a weak smile. “Thank you, Hugo.”

Friedkin melted into a sad smile and Todd made his way back to where Mona and Farah sat by Dirk’s right side and kneeled at his left one.

“Bart,” Todd called to the flames gently.

Bart opened her eyes through the blue flames, small and feeble. “I’m all worn out, Todd.” 

“If I bring Dirk his heart back, will it kill you?” He asked, eyes catching with Farah’s worried frown. 

Bart was silent for a few moments, considering Todd’s question, before speaking up with that awfully quiet tone. “I don’t think if you do it, no.” She sighed. “You’re connected to this deal, but I don’t really know how. It’s why we both survived the water you’ve poured on me.”

So it really wasn’t a just memory, what Todd saw behind the Castle’s door. It was the start of Dirk and Bart’s shared history, and Todd interfered with it, or rather he already did before he even met Dirk in the alleyway the day he was cursed by Friedkin.

Was that — was that why Dirk acted so familiar with him when they first met? Had Dirk remembered him already, known him from the night in his childhood when he signed a contract with a demon?

Todd nodded silently, not trusting himself to say the right thing if he spoke up. Bart was fluttering in his hands, like a wounded bird, and Todd realized he was holding a child’s heart in his hands. 

Todd took in a breath, his eyes fluttering closed. He thought of a blessing, a wish, despite having never been a man of any faith before everything that happened; may Bart live a thousand more years, and may Dirk recover his heart and learn to live for himself again. 

Todd opened his eyes and leaned over Dirk, pressing Bart to the left side of Dirk’s chest, over his torn and dirty shirt, feeling the disappearance of the flames through his fingers and into the empty space of Dirk’s heart.

When Bart’s blue flames were gone there was a moment of complete silence where everything stilled, like when Bart first entered Dirk’s body all those years ago — just a few moments ago for Todd — with both of Todd’s hands against Dirk’s chest, before Todd felt a fain beat against his fingers and fireworks spread from Dirk’s chest again, vibrant and colourful and  _ relieving. _

Bart’s starry form appeared and left Dirk’s body, floating into the sky, twirling in the air in flashes.

“She’s alive!” Farah called in relief.

“She’s free,” Mona added in quiet amazement.

Bart circled them before flying by Turnip’s head, then rushed ahead, leaving their sight up above. Todd watched her disappear from their sight and brought his attention back to Dirk as the other man let out a low grunt. Dirk muttered out pained noises, stirring back to life on the wooden floor.

“He's moving, he’s alive!” Mona called happily.

Then the few remainings of the stuttering Castle creaked and broke, detaching from each other as the thin metallic legs gave out, and they found that their floor tripped over the edge and began falling down the hill.

“You broke Bart’s spell,” Farah told him, panic in her voice.

Like a sled, they went down the rocky hills. After long screaming-filled moments, Turnip jumped in front of the wooden board they were clutching onto, trying to stop them with her stick. Because of the great friction and speed between Turnip’s stick and the ground, it got shorter and shorter, until they got to the bottom of the hill and came to a halt.

Turnip span in the air from the sudden stop and Farah caught her limp body, the scarecrow having nothing to lean against for she saved them using her only backbone.

“Turnip, are you okay?” Farah asked desperately. Turnip’s head was twisted, turned to the opposite direction of her body and unmoving. “I’ll get you a new stick, right away.” She turned Turnip’s torso in her hands, one of her hands cradling the back of the scarecrow’s head gently. “Thank you, Turnip.”

She pressed her lips against Turnip’s forehead. In a sudden movement, Turnip stirred and jerked, jumping up from Farah’s touch to the air. Turnip’s body rustled when a pair of legs came out of her ragged waist and a pair of juman arms were formed in place of the former hay ones, then her clothing turned to a dark brown suit, her skin tan and hair a blonde mess.

Todd gaped at her. Turnip — now a tall woman with a Cheshire grin and a few stars tattooed on her face, from above her right eyebrow down to her eye — jumped on Farah, hugging her tightly. 

“Thank you, Farah!” She breathed out, relief thick and gratitude thick in her voice. She sounded raspy-like, which made a lot of sense, for after all she really was a scarecrow just moments ago. Todd couldn’t ease his incredulously furrowed eyebrows.

Farah squirmed a little under her touch. “You — You’re Turnip?”

The blonde woman leaned back from Farah, looking down at her legs and then at her hands, examining her human body again. “Tina, actually,” she said bubbly, laughter spilling out of her. “I’m the princess from the neighbouring kingdom. Some shit spell turned me into a scarecrow.”

“Only broken by a true love’s kiss,” Todd said — or more like sighed.  _ Of-fucking-course. _

It didn’t matter that Dirk only reacted to his words when Todd kissed his face, just earlier that day. Not at all.

Todd couldn’t see Farah’s face, but Tina was blushing bright red. She took a stumbling step back from Farah. “I don’t know about that—”

For the first time in Todd’s notice, ever since he came across Farah, she reached over to grab Tina — an actual person around her, bringing their touch nearer her. Her hands grasped around Tina’s wrists, urging her closer. “What would’ve happened to you if I didn’t do that just now? You would’ve died, right?”

Tina stuttered for a moment, letting out a serious of uncertain noises. “I suppose.”

Todd looked away from the two with a smile, his gaze dropping to Dirk lying on his side, hair swept from the ride as he stirred awake. The two women already had Mona and Friedkin observing their exchange, they didn't need his set of preying eyes as well.

Dirk was frowning even before he managed to open his eyes and a wave of affection washed over Todd just at the sight of those two green eyes searching for him.

“What a mess here. What’s all the fuss?” Dirk muttered and tried to sit up but failed, falling back to his back, snickering. “By God, I feel terrible!”

Todd’s smile dropped, a worried frown growing on his face. “What is it?” He brought his hands over to Dirk’s arm, not knowing what to do. 

“Like I’m trapped under a stone,” Dirk replied.

Todd’s lips tugged upwards, unable to hold back. “Well, you have no excuse to act like an ass now. A heart’s a heavy burden.”

Understanding flickered through Dirk’s face as he leaned back on his elbow, face close to Todd’s and completely genuine. His expression was so stunned and affectionate it was almost too much for Todd to take, only that it was hardly the first time he had looked at Todd that way. It was merely the first time Todd had noticed.

Dirk brought his hand up to cup Todd’s face, stroking his cheek, and Todd’s spine was clearly not doing its job for he felt like putty at Dirk’s touch.

“God, Todd,” Dirk began, voice soft and quiet, just for the two of them to hear. “Your eyes are just like the spring sky.”

Heat rose to Todd’s cheeks but he couldn’t care less, his smile widening. “And I’m also me again, so there’s that.”

“You were always you to me,” Dirk insisted. “You saved me.”

Todd tipped his head lower. “And you saved me right back.”

“You changed my life, Todd,” Dirk breathed out, eyebrows furrowing despite his sweet smile. He lingered for a beat or so, his fingers caressing the line of Todd’s stubbly jaw. “I love you,” he added, near uncertainty.

Todd could’ve died right there and then. “How convenient,” he said cheekily.

Dirk snickered, hesitation washing off his features as he brought Todd down with him to a laughing embrace. Todd’s arms folded around Dirk’s exhausted body, Dirk burying himself at the nape of his neck. His fingers ran through Dirk’s hair, clutching to the dark strands, feeling the tension leave his body with every breath he exhaled against Dirk. 

Todd leaned back and for a moment just watched Dirk below him, the colour returning to his skin, the glistening of his vibrant eyes, the life stored in the corner of his smile. Even without the shininess of his skin in the sun and the fuzzing feeling of magic around him, he was everything more than whatever ethereal being Todd could make up in his head.

Todd leaned down again and kissed Dirk, sweet and lingering, a luxury against his mouth. The pressure against his back where Dirk was pulling him closer, the warmth of Dirk’s mouth welcoming him in — all slow and savouring, like lazy morning waves reaching the sand on the shore.

All Todd could think of was this:  _ This is the way it was meant to be _ , and then: _It_ _ is done.  _

They really were connected, all of them. Not just him and Dirk, but also Farah, and Tina, and Friedkin and Mona and goddamn Priest. It was always meant to be that way, and Todd embraced the realization without reluctancy, for once. 

Farah coughed loudly and brought Todd back to his body. He leaned away and Dirk tried chasing his lips, in vain, before opening his eyes to look up at Todd with all the warmth stored in the world. Todd looked up from Dirk to where the others stood, almost sheepish, a snort of laughter catching in his throat when he saw Mona’s hand shielding Friedkin from the sight of Dirk and him. Dirk didn’t have that much self-restraint.

Farah gave Todd a look, or maybe she gave Dirk, or maybe both. All in all, it meant  _ thank god _ or something of the like, and Todd’s heart probably doubled its size.

“You should go home and make them all stop this war,” Farah told Tina, voice defiant and shoulders slumped. 

“I’m not so sure how to, but that’s exactly what I’ll do,” Tina assured. She looked away from Farah’s eyes for a moment before looking back, her posture stiffening as she rubbed the back of her head. Todd noticed she had a few small braids in her hair. “Is there any chance I could… see you ever again?”

The softest smile Todd ever saw Farah sport had cracked on her face. “When it’s all over, come back. I’ll… be waiting.”

Mona giggled a little loudly at that, earning a scolding look from Farah. Tina’s grin returned to her sun-kissed features. Soon after, they bid goodbye to Tina, waving to her as she jumped away on the magical stick Farah manifested for her, off into the horizon in the same quick jumps as she did when she was a scarecrow. Todd elbowed Farah good-naturedly, earning a sharp look before the woman’s embarrassment crumbled and a grin grew over her face, mirroring his own.

With a gush of wind, a starry figure flashed closer to them in the sky, Bart showing up above them.

“Look what the wind blew in!” Farah greeted her, breathless with happiness.

Dirk was already standing when he cupped his hands together, reaching up until Bart, the shimmering star, lowered herself towards him. “You didn’t have to come back,” he said, a warm expression gracing his features. When the star met Dirk’s skin she turned to Bart’s familiar red and orange flames.

“Well, it looks like there’s rain coming,” Bart explained. 

Todd squinted against the sun as he looked up to the sky — as blue and cloudless as they haven’t been in a long while.

Dirk hadn’t missed that fact either. He raised an eyebrow at her. “No, it doesn’t.”

Todd leaned against Dirk’s side, his chest pressed at Dirk’s back, folding his arms over his chest as the warmth of Dirk’s body washed over him sweetly. “Did you miss us already?” Todd asked, a grin on his face, tipping his chin over Dirk’s shoulder.

“I did not!” Bart exclaimed, burning a deep shade of red. Farah snorted in loud laughter, spilling out of her both in amusement and relief. The others joined her quickly.

It didn’t take long until a new sight was seen up in the sky: the renewed Castle, rebuilt with wings and a yard and definitely more people living between its walls. It was a new life, one which Todd felt at immense ease upon calling his own.

He stood on the new balcony, looking over the clouds they passed as he heard Amanda’s loud greeting as she hopped by and most likely came across Tina and Farah inside. Mona was dozing off at Todd’s feet, an old pleased corgi again, as Todd leaned against the railing and felt long arms envelop him from behind and nuzzle against his neck.

Todd smiled easily at the fluttering kiss on the skin between his hair and collar, turning to face Dirk, his back against the railing and Dirk’s hands moving to rest against the metal on each side of him.

“Hey there,” Dirk said warmly, his face bright in his content smile.

One of Todd’s hands found its natural place on the nape of Dirk’s neck, fingers curling to the short strands on the back of his neck, his other hand pressed against Dirk’s chest.

“Missed me?” Todd asked, tipping his head up with a smirk. He would never get tired of this.

“Did  _ you _ miss  _ me _ ?” Dirk asked instead, raising his eyebrows in a challenging manner that Todd grew so fond of that he nearly felt weak in the knees. “You’re thinking about me  _ incredibly _ loudly, you know.”

The wind blew in Dirk’s dark hair and Todd ran his hand through it, feeling the soft strands through his fingers, thinking of the day Dirk called upon the spirits of darkness because Todd swapped his spells by accident, holding a snicker back.

“Not nearly as loud as you,” Todd said, quite some time after Dirk had already said his own statement. His heart beat steadily in his chest, and he could feel Dirk’s own against his palm over his shirt. “Amanda’s here. We should come inside.”

“We should,” agreed Dirk decidedly, not moving an inch from where he had Todd trapped between him and the railing.

Todd gave him a look, waiting for him to move, before breaking into a smile and welcoming Dirk’s grinning mouth against his own. God, how he loved that ridiculous, brilliant, reckless man. Melting against Dirk as the golden sun began setting behind him, Todd couldn’t possibly wish to be anywhere else but that odd castle he found himself wandering into all those months ago, the rumbling of the Castle — so full of life — a pleasant hum against the whispers of the universe.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> all right guys,, can't believe i finally finished this!! gaaahhhh  
> i'm so glad with how it turned out in the end! this has been the first time for me actually writing a long fic (and committing to it, oopsie) and i've had such a great time :)) also y'all have been so so so sweet with your comments and support!! just! thank you sm!  
> let me know what you thought about the ending, love you all !!


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